Hidden Inside
by RunawayWind
Summary: She reached out for the Konoha hitai-ate, but it was still half-buried, far out of her exhausted reach. Sakura closed her eyes painfully, too tired to even wince. She laid there as silent tears ran down her cheeks, mixing with the dirt and blood and leaving behind trails of mud on her face.
1. Genin Exams

_**Genin Exams**_

* * *

It was the day before the graduation exams to become a genin, and Uzumaki Naruto had yet again managed to annoy Iruka-sensei into making his class practice transformations.

"Haruno Sakura!"Iruka-sensei called. "Maybe youcan show Naruto how to do a _proper_ transformation," the sensei glared at the small boy dressed in blinding orange. Naruto was still rolling on the floor, laughing at what Iruka-sensei's reaction  
had been to a beautiful, _very_ naked woman suddenly appearing and disappearing in the classroom.

And so, amongst the laughter and disgust resounding across the classroom from Naruto's mischief, a small, quiet girl with dirty pink hair walked to the front of the classroom and transformed perfectly into Iruka-sensei.

"See, _that_ is how you transform, Naruto!" Iruka exclaimed, still exasperated with the boy. He nodded shortly at Sakura, dismissing her. The girl silently returned to her seat in the very back of the classroom, avoiding the eyes of the other students.

The next student Iruka-sensei called up to transform didn't even glance her way as he bounded towards the front.

No one in the class knew how to react to Sakura, when they actually remembered she existed. She rarely spoke, and it seemed as if she constantly did her best to make herself invisible to the rest of the class. Sakura's bright, though usually slightly  
dirty or ragged, pink hair was her only noticeable feature, with bangs that shadowed her eyes and a low ponytail that barely hung past her shoulders. Her class saw her as plain and her silence intimidated them, so they ignored her. She wasn't annoying,  
loud, or rude, so they left her alone.

Her teachers thought she was average in school smarts, if maybe a little slow to write and catch onto things. Her jutsu was decent and her control was higher than average, but she had low physical endurance on the field and low taijutsu ability, they  
decided.

But no one in the academy, teachers or students, truly knew anything at all about Haruno Sakura.

* * *

She was from a small ninja clan originally, but it was Sakura's only remaining relative, her uncle Shin, who had taught and trained her in the basics of being a shinobi since the day her parents disappeared. Although he was only a chunin to the rest of  
the village, Sakura knew a secret, spiral tattoo marked Uncle Shin as a retired ANBU.

A shinobi is quiet, coming and going unnoticed. Never loud, never obnoxious, never obvious. They are watchful, observant of all their surroundings, and can make instant decisions based on their situation. And this was what she strove to be, what Uncle  
Shin demanded her to be every day.

She was expected to learn basic ninjutsu and genjutsu techniques and signs in a matter of days, and was punished every time she missed a target with kunai or shuriken. She often had bruises from training at home that she had to hide, and she was constantly  
tired in class. The exhaustion was particularly bad after nights when Uncle Shin made her spar with him for hours on end, with only taijutsu. Those nights were awful, because her uncle was a long-range specialist with a temper. Even through all this,  
though, Sakura believed that it was his missions that made him that way, and that the violent person she so often saw wasn't who he actually was.

She held no grudge against him, because everything he did was for her own good, so that she wouldn't end up dead and useless like her mother and father.

* * *

A day later Sakura walked into the examination room at the academy, nervously putting a hand on her stomach.

"Create two clones. That is your graduation exam."

She stared at the proctors. That was it? That was all she had to do to pass?!

Sakura glanced at Iruka-sensei, who nodded at her. She quickly formed the seals and steeled herself against the horrible drain of chakra, making herself stay standing through the rush of lightheadedness and nausea.

Two perfect clones stood next to her.

"Good job, Sakura. You've graduated." Iruka grinned at her. She smiled back at him and took the blue hitai-ate he handed her. She had done it! She had become a genin!

Sakura walked out of the classroom and crossed the academy grounds over to Shin, who was waiting with the other parents, but stopped short as she noticed his expression.

"Haruno," he said shortly, staring at her. Her smile fell as quickly as it had come.

"It seems that soft idiot Iruka thinks you are able to actually act like a true shinobi, instead of just a brat playing ninja. I will decide for myself."

Sakura cleaned her face of any emotion, and bowed to him. He turned and strode back towards the training yard behind his house and she followed, silently preparing herself.

She knew that voice he used.

* * *

Uncle Shin's test was as brutal as she had expected it to be. Every time she blocked one of his hits, two more were behind it, twice as fast and twice as strong. For hours he tested her past her limits, in physical strength, in the jutsus she had learned,  
in her reaction times. He wasn't impressed.

"Weak," he sneered at her collapsed form on the ground, long after the moon had risen. "You aren't worthy of the title of shinobi, nor of that headband you _earned_."

He turned his back on the pink-haired girl in the dirt and walked away.

After a moment, Sakura gritted her teeth and wavered to her feet.

"Uncle, wait, I-"

* * *

Shin turned back to stare at the small form that was trembling, trying to stand in a defensive position. He smirked, and grabbed a handful of rocks from the potted plant on the deck of his house. He started tossing them lazily at the idiot pink-haired  
brat before him.

She dodged the first few, recognizing another test, but Shin got annoyed and threw them more pointedly, with more force. His aim wasn't perfect as it should have been, because he let the brat had landed a pitiful hit on his arm earlier in the spar.

After a few handfuls of rocks were gone, one finally hit her shoulder, and spun her around with enough force to make the already exhausted brat fall to her knees again, and another rock knocked the new, dirty, and sweaty hitai-ate off her head, which  
snapped back. She fell backwards and lay there, motionless, though he could still see the rise and fall of her chest.

"Can't you see, girl? All your enemy needs is a handful of rocks to defeat you." He shook his head mockingly and walked towards her, hiding the limp and pains his own mistakes had cost him in their earlier spar. There was no way the mouse had even a chance  
of actually landing a hit in a real spar, he sneered to himself.

He stopped and looked at the brat. Still awake, after five hours and that last hit? He snorted, seeing her shake. She would never learn just how weak she was.

"Do you see it now? You're pitiful. A failure. And you don't deserve to wear the leaf of the Konoha elite." Shin used his foot to grind the particular headband into the ground well within the brat's sight. He laughed then, and added, "You're lucky. At  
least you'll know that you're weak and useless before you actually go get yourself killed on a mission you weren't ready for, like your parents. My brother." He spat on the ground by her, and turned his back on the trembling girl, heading inside to  
clean up and have another drink before his mission started later that morning.

* * *

Sakura reached for the precious hitai-ate Iruka had given her that was now imprinted into the dirt, but it was still far out of her exhausted reach.

Sakura closed her eyes painfully, too tired to even wince. She laid there as silent tears ran down her cheeks, mixing with the dirt and blood and leaving behind trails of mud on her face.


	2. Team Assignments

_**Team Assignments**_

* * *

The next day, Sakura woke up dirty, stiff, sore, and in pain in the Haruno training yard. She pushed herself up off the ground carefully, blinking in the bright light.

The realization that morning had come hit her like a mace, and she gasped, scrambling upright. She wasn't late, was she?! Today was the day she finally got assigned to her genin team!

But her sudden rushed nervousness and excitement fell as she saw the hitai-ate, so new and shiny and perfect yesterday now ground into the dirt before her. Sakura carefully schooled her face into a blank expression, though she wanted to cry so badly it felt like she couldn't breathe.

Uncle Shin was much, much, stronger than Iruka-sensei. He was right, wasn't he? She was weak.

* * *

Sakura went inside and washed her wounds mechanically and with practiced precision, dressing the cuts and scrapes and nicks from the kunai, shuriken, and wire the same way the medics at the hospital always had. On the deeper cuts and burns she spread ointment she had smuggled from the hospital on her last visit, a month ago.

Then she did a little trick she had found in a medical book a few years back when she had hid in the central library. (Shin knew that particular hiding place by now though.) Sakura focused on the tiny bit of chakra in her body that she could feel and turned it into base chakra, the kind medics used, and pushed it around her body to heal her from the inside out. She didn't know if it really worked, but it did make it easier to move and that way she knew how much chakra she had for the day, too.

She got dressed in her usual clothes, a blain brown tunic with a mesh shirt underneath, calf-length loose black pants, and worn black sandals. She packed a few weapons and basic supplies, and then glanced at her hitai-ate. It was still dirty, a bit bloody, and slightly burnt from the fire ninjutsu Uncle Shin had used last night.

Sakura carefully washed the blue headband and tied it around her waist where she could hide it more easily, her cheeks red with shame.

She didn't deserve to wear it.

* * *

As it turned out, Sakura wasn't late for school. She got there in time and sat in her usual seat in the back corner of the classroom, watching everyone else.

Ino had thrown a fit over Naruto sitting next to Sasuke, which was funny to Sakura because Naruto liked Ino and Sasuke really didn't care either way. Sakura smiled softly, because those three were fun to watch. They took her mind off the pain and helped her forget about Uncle Shin. And Naruto had even graduated, which was surprising. The only person Uncle Shin seemed to hate more than herself was Naruto.

Sakura caught Hinata's eye and smiled. The Hyuuga was even shyer than Sakura was and the two of them had usually ended up as partners in class by default because they were never confident enough to ask anyone else. They had formed a quiet, tentative friendship over the years, which meant Sakura would do anything for the little Hyuuga. She was her first friend. (The smaller girl also had the biggest crush on Naruto, which Sakura thought was adorable, if slightly misguided.)

"Good luck on your team, Sakura," Hinata murmured.

"You too, Hinata," Sakura grinned, then winced. Her voice sounded too loud to be proper to address the heiress, but Hinata smiled at her anyways and she let out a small breath she hadn't known she was holding. Hinata really was nice.

Sakura looked back to the rather dramatic group in front, just in time to see Sasuke and Naruto fall together into an awkward-looking kiss. Her eyes widened, and then she broke out into quiet, but mad giggles as the rest of the class roared with laughter. Naruto and Sasuke argued fiercely, both completely grossed out and defensive over what was obviously an accident. And then Naruto was soundly beat by Ino. Again.

She giggled again, wondering what a team would be like if it had those three in it and then felt sorry for whoever their Jounin instructor would have been.

Then she panicked. When Uncle Shin disappeared this morning, did that mean...? No, he wouldn't be a jounin instructor, everyone thought he was just a chunin! He had forbidden her to let anyone know about his ANBU tattoo, so the Hokage surely wouldn't give him a genin team…

"Alright, genin, settle down." Iruka-sensei grinned at the group in front of them. "First off, congratulations on graduating from the academy." There was a cheer from everyone in the class and even a smile from Hinata.

Sakura tried to smile for her, but couldn't quite manage it. Her headache was steadily getting worse as Iruka started listing off the genin teams, too, and the pain and nausea from the seal Uncle Shin had put on her chakra near her stomach was getting bad.

She never complained though, if she could help it. He said it would make her stronger because it acted like a big weight on her entire body, and he said it also made it so that she could only ever use about 1/12th of her chakra, which was good practice. And plus, the pain meant she was getting stronger, that her chakra was coming back after last night.

"Team 7, Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke, and Uzumaki Naruto," Sakura vaguely heard Iruka-sensei say her name, bringing her back to the world around her. She managed to glance up and look at her two team-mates in shock.

"Good luck," she heard Hinata murmur, more heartfelt this time. Sakura paled.

"Thanks," she whispered back, "I'll need it."

"Awww, come on, I have to be with him?! Wait, who's Sakura?!" Naruto twisted around and Sakura wished she could just disappear into thin air. Uncle would hate this, even if she did manage to stay a genin ninja and not have to go back to the academy.

"Idiot," Ino huffed, and slammed Naruto's head into the desk. And then she turned to glare at Sakura in the back of the room. "Don't think you're better than me, pinky. Sasuke is mine," Ino hissed, well within hearing of the entire class. Sakura nodded emphatically and fearfully at Ino, the daughter of a high-ranking shinobi, the head of the intelligence division in fact. Ino had to be strong. There was no way Sakura would, or even could, ever challenge her.

Sakura saw both Naruto and Sasuke looking at her and she turned away quickly, looking at the desk in front of her. She could also feel the stares of everyone in the class and her cheeks burned in shame. She didn't know what they expected her to do and nearly fainted from relief when Iruka-sensei cleared his throat.

"Team 8 will be Hyuuga Hinata, Aburame Shino, and Inuzuka Kiba..."

Sakura smiled when she heard a soft sigh from Hinata as Kiba loudly made his opinion known.

* * *

"Where is our jounin?!" Naruto demanded of the classroom door for the seventeenth time in the past two hours.

Sakura could practically hear Sasuke grinding his teeth together from all the way across the classroom. "I don't know, idiot."

"Shut up, asshole." Naruto grumbled. As Sakura tried to watch him despite her nagging headache and nausea, she saw his fidgeting get worse.

He began to jump around the classroom, hopping on desks and making paper airplanes from notepaper left behind and aiming for a bulls-eye on the chalkboard from various positions around the room. She giggled quietly when he threw an airplane from between his legs, backwards, and it nearly flew into Sasuke's nose.

Then Naruto stopped moving and a mischievous grin crossed his face. He ran out of the door before either Sasuke or Sakura had a chance to protest.

She got up hesitatingly, wondering why the instructor was so late. Maybe she hadn't been assigned a jounin, or Uncle Shin had changed the Hokage's mind and failed her, or maybe even Naruto too, and was going to put Sasuke on another team. It would make the most sense, after all. Maybe she should go ask Iruka-sensei, he wasn't far away. And if Naruto wasn't coming back…

Sakura walked down to the front row and hovered near one of the desks, trying to get up the nerve to talk to Sasuke. She did think he was a bit cute. And he was very strong too, in the class spars.

"Do you think he'll come back?" Sakura said softly, just loud enough for Sasuke to hear her. He snorted.

"Probably. Idiot's too excited about actually graduating."

As if on cue, Naruto barreled back into the room with something in his hand. He cackled madly as he went around to the cupboards, spreading what Sakura suspected was super-glue all over the insides of drawers and cabinets, and even in the keyholes and on the feet of the teacher's chair. He also glued the light switch permanently on, and the chalk to the chalkboard, and the erasers underneath the teacher's desk. Sakura grinned, though she worried he was going to get in more trouble, maybe even get the whole team in trouble.

She watched him while he finished setting everything up and decided it was probably a good idea to keep Naruto occupied at all times. He was very entertaining, and his mad cackle seemed to be infectious, but mischief wasn't always be a good idea. Though she had to admit, he really did think of everything when it involved a prank.

Even Sasuke was so bored he watched the prankster set up Iruka's impending headache.

"He's going to know it was you, idiot." Sasuke finally said.

"Ha! You just wish you had the guts to come up with something this brilliant, asshole." Naruto finished holding the chalk up on the board to dry, stepped back to inspect his work, and nodded. The chalk had been arranged in a pile of poo, and Sakura smiled, thinking of Iruka's reaction.

Naruto had kept one eraser, though, from its fate under the desk. He smothered the bottom of it in the rest of the entire bottle of glue, pulled over a chair, clambered up to the door, and lodged the eraser carefully between the door and the threshold, glue-side down.

"Serves him right for being so late," Naruto said proudly.

"He's a jounin, he's not going to fall for something as stupid as that," Sasuke grumbled, but Naruto ignored him, grinning like a madman.

He started fidgeting again and Sakura sat down nearer to the front, deciding to wait with her new team. Most of the nausea had faded, though her entire body was still sore and aching. She had never talked much with either of her new teammates before and studied them now from behind a curtain of pink bangs.

Sasuke kept to himself, only speaking when someone - usually Naruto or Kiba - goaded him into it. He was the last of his clan, who was killed in a terrible massacre by his older brother years ago. And he was smart, pushing himself to be the top of the class, and strong in the class spars. He liked to show off, in his own less obnoxious way.

Naruto, on the other hand, was the infamous prankster nobody liked very much (except Hinata, Sakura remembered with a grin) but he didn't seem, bad. Not like Uncle Shin always talked about. He didn't have any parents either. Team Orphan, Sakura thought, without much humor.

Naruto looked at Sakura, and then at Sasuke, and back to Sakura.

"Figures. I get stuck with the quiet people."

"I talk," Sakura said softly in protest.

"And Sasuke argues, I guess." Naruto added, rubbing the back of his head. Said boy turned and glared at Naruto. "Eh, could be worse," the blond continued. "Coulda been Shino or Shikamaru."

At that precise moment, all three of them heard the door to the room slide open, and Naruto whipped around eagerly to watch his prank in action.

The three genin watched as the eraser fell and landed in a slight puff of chalk dust on a silvery-haired masked man.

And stuck.

All three kids were speechless for a moment.

"Gotcha!" Naruto cackled. "Serves you right, we've been waiting for_ever!_" Sakura just stared at the older man in the doorway. Though it was pretty funny, even she knew to check for traps as obvious as that. Was he actually a jounin? Uncle Shin would've had her do hours of training just for falling for that simple trap.

"Well," the man said. "My first impression of you three is…"

Sakura held her breath for a heartbeat. Oh no….

"That you are absolutely worthless. Meet me on the rooftop in five minutes."

His lone eye crinkled upwards in what Sakura assumed was a sarcastic smile, but all she could do was think about those two words. They seemed to echo in her head.

_Absolutely worthless._

Sakura knew it. There was no way she was going to be able to stay a genin.


	3. Kakashi's Team

_**Kakashi's Team**_

* * *

The three genin stared at the jounin who disappeared in a poof, along with the eraser.

"_HEY!_" Naruto yelled, recovering from his shock first. "You don't even _know_ us yet!" The boy rushed out of the classroom into the hallway.

Sakura stared at the open door and tried not to burst into tears. She was usually much better at controlling herself than this, but _why?_

She and Sasuke pushed back their chairs and went to follow Naruto at a slower pace.

* * *

They made it up to the rooftop in two minutes to see Naruto spinning around, trying to find the jounin. Sakura's stomach was still twisted into a knot, and she couldn't breathe very well. None of them were going to stay genin, were they?

She took out a long, thin chain from her small side pocket and wrapped it tightly around her hand, distracting herself. It was a habit, and helped her focus on her surroundings through her fear.

By the time she had finished wrapping the chain around her hand, their Jounin Instructor showed up. He hopped neatly over the railing and leaned against it, studying the three.

"Now, I'd like for you three to share a little bit about yourselves. Your likes, dislikes, dreams, ambitions, hobbies, stuff like that," he said, after observing them for a while.

They stared at him.

"But we don't even know your name yet!" Naruto said emphatically.

"Sensei," Sakura said softly, "Would you go first?"

Everyone on the rooftop went silent at hearing her speak, and Sakura turned pale and looked down quickly as she realized she had just asked a shinobi of much, much higher rank to tell them about himself. The jounins' one uncovered eye turned towards her and inspected her more closely.

"Hmmm. Well then, my name is Hatake Kakashi, I like some things, and I don't like a lot of other things. My dreams for the future are none of your business, and I have a few hobbies. Now it's your turn," he said, nodding to Naruto.

Sakura looked up quickly. Kakashi-sensei didn't sound mad that she had asked him, but he also didn't really say very much at all about himself. He just sounded, bored? She looked him over, trying to figure out if he was anything like Uncle.

"Yeah!" Naruto crowed. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto, and I like instant ramen. But I like when Iruka-sensei buys me ramen at Ichiraku's much better. I really don't like having to wait for the ramen to cook though."

Sakura stared at Naruto. How much ramen did he usually eat?!

"My dream is to become a better shinobi than the Fourth Hokage, cause he was _awesome! _And then everyone will have to finally acknowledge that I exist!" Naruto finished with a flourish.

Sakura's first reaction was to smile at the joke, but then realized Naruto was completely serious. There was no hint of mockery in his voice, and there wasn't a joke anywhere in sight. He really thought he could be a greater ninja than the Fourth Hokage?! And for having the village acknowledge he exist, well… Sakura knew that everyone looked at him the same way Uncle Shin did to her. With cold distaste, if they looked at all.

"My hobbies are pranks and practical jokes, I guess." Naruto finished.

Kakashi-sensei scratched his head, staring at Naruto. "Fourth Hokage huh… Well you got a _long_ way to go, kid. Next."

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. There are plenty of things I hate, which don't really matter because there is almost nothing I do like. Dreams are pointless, but I do have determination. There is someone I have sworn to kill."

Sakura stared at Sasuke in shock, but then remembered that his brother had killed his entire family. It wasn't so surprising. And then her stomach flipped and nausea came over her as she realized it was her turn.

"And finally, the young lady," Kakashi nodded to Sakura.

"Um, I've never really thought about it. I guess I like watching the stars at night, and I train a lot, with my Uncle. I just…" Sakura trailed off. She felt the hitai-ate on her stomach, right over her chakra weight. A sudden thought came to her, and she decided what her dream was, even if it could never happen. "I want to be strong, and to be able to protect people."

"Alright then," Kakashi-sensei said. Sakura frowned. The mask made it extremely hard to tell what he was thinking. "I think we all know a little bit more about each other now. Formal training will begin tomorrow."

"Alright!" Naruto pumped his fist in the air. "What're we gonna do?"

Sakura jumped at Naruto's extremely loud voice, wary of Kakashi's reaction and then sighed inwardly when no sign of anger came.

"Our first project involves only the members of this team."

"What is it?!" Naruto practically yelled from excitement. Kakashi looked at him for a long moment.

"Survival exercises," the jounin said finally.

Naruto looked extremely confused. "But why? We did that in the academy."

Kakashi-sensei grinned. "You'll have to survive against _me._ If you individually do not make it through this exercise, you will return to the academy for more training."

At that revelation Naruto protested rather loudly, but Sakura was strangely calm. She would fail, and return to the academy. She didn't look forward to Uncle Shin's reaction but it was something she knew she could handle.

"We'll meet tomorrow morning at the training grounds so that I can evaluate your performance in this survival exercise. Bring all of your tools and weapons and don't eat breakfast, unless, of course, you enjoy throwing up."

Sakura looked up at Kakashi-sensei through her bangs. Throwing up from pain wasn't new to her.

"The details of your assignment are in this handout. Memorize it, and don't be late!" Kakashi-sensei's eye crinkled into what Sakura assumed was a smile, and then he disappeared with a 'poof.'

The three genin were left staring at the place where he disappeared.

"Man, this handwriting _sucks!_"

* * *

Sakura went home and began to prepare for the survival test. Uncle Shin probably wouldn't come home until after dinner, and then he would probably question her about the team assignments and then train.

Sakura went into her room and took off the hitai-ate, setting it on her desk. She wouldn't be a genin after tomorrow. That was alright, she hadn't expected to be able to stay a shinobi for long. But Naruto and Sasuke, they had dreams. Even if Sasuke's was a bit, well, overambitious, and Naruto's practically impossible she wouldn't keep them from following their dreams. She would help them as much as she could.

Hers could never happen anyway.

Survival… Everything that word entailed. Sustenance, water, oxygen, defense, warmth. But this was a survival _mission_. Would Kakashi-sensei expect them to attack? Or was the survival just in completing the mission? Sakura shook her head. What could she do to get the boys to pass?

Sakura absentmindedly cleaned and sharpened her weapons while she thought. Sasuke could fight well, and he had his fire techniques. Naruto was good at pranks and planning them, and he was brash, giving his all to a fight. Pranking a jounin might be near impossible and Naruto's focus left something to be desired, but Kakashi-sensei had fallen for the eraser… Now that she thought about it, first impressions were important in a fight, weren't they? It was obvious now, Kakashi wanted them to underestimate him. The fight, or mission, or whatever it was, had already started the moment Kakashi had seen Naruto's prank, perhaps even beforehand. But what was the goal of the exercise? The paper hadn't held anything more than a time and location.

Sakura sighed. It was a purely situational exercise. So, how to mix their techniques? Pranks, fire, fighting. What was Sakura herself good at?

She stood up when she heard the scrape of the front door and walked to the living room, her stomach twisting nervously under the constant ache of the seal.

"Uncle," she said, bowing.

* * *

Shin looked over at the brat and gritted his teeth. He hadn't heard her coming through the hallway and could barely sense her miniscule amount of chakra. Then he smirked, when he noticed she wasn't wearing the hitai-ate.

"Failed already, mouse?"

Sakura straightened slowly, but didn't look him in the eye. "No, Uncle. Kakashi-sensei will test our team tomorrow morning."

Shin nearly ran into a wall.

"Hatake Kakashi?! Who else is on your team?"

"Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke," she said quietly.

"Huh. Well it makes sense. The top of the class with the lowest," Shin said. "And the Uchiha boy with Kakashi, who has the last remaining Sharnigan eye in Konoha." He looked at the girl. "Kakashi was an ANBU operative, and has never passed a genin team for as long as he has been given them."

He walked out into the training yard attached to the Haruno house, grinning to himself. The mouse had frozen and turned pale at those last pieces of information.

It was a very nice house, Shin thought, but the girl was annoying, regardless of his orders. She was weak, hardly even useful in training except as a moving target.

* * *

Sakura winced as the awful killing intent spiked and automatically drew a kunai, tightening the chain on her hand. Kakashi-sensei was ANBU, like Uncle Shin?

"Let's see what you learned from last night."


	4. Second Impressions

_**Second Impressions**_

* * *

Shin had let her off easily tonight. Sakura picked up the fallen kunai and shuriken slowly, and stumbled back into the house around two in the morning. She took off the sweat-filled and torn training clothes and set out a big shirt that she had found in her parents old room years ago to sleep in. (She only went through their room when Uncle Shin went out on long escort missions.)

She turned on the cold water in the bathtub, filled it with ice, and mechanically sank into the freezing water, feeling the pains and sores in her body go numb. Sakura sped up the tiny amount of chakra in her system, forcing it to heal her a bit better but still wincing as the pain in her stomach increased exponentially. She assumed the pain was from the chakra pushed up against the seal that was trying to fill her empty chakra coils.

She washed the dirt and blood left from now two nights of practice from under her nails and in her hair, and when the water had warmed up she got up, dressed, and went to bed.

It took a long time for Sakura to sleep, because as her body got warmer, the pain came back.

* * *

Sakura walked to the training grounds, making it to the specified practice area a few minutes early at 7:55. Sasuke was already there, and even Naruto had showed up by 8:00.

The three waited, and waited, and waited.

Sakura fell asleep clutching a kunai while the boys waited.

And waited.

And waited some more.

* * *

By 9:30 Naruto looked ready to kill someone and even Sasuke was muttering under his breath.

And so they waited.

And waited.

* * *

By 10:00, Sakura had woken back up again to Naruto and Sasuke arguing about ramen. She rubbed her eyes. What?

"It's just calories and salt, idiot." Sasuke said.

"Ha! What-_ever! _You wouldn't know good food if it hit you in the face!" Sasuke twitched as Naruto continued on, smirking. "You're just jealous cause I make better ramen than you do."

"I don't _eat _ramen." Sasuke gritted his teeth, but couldn't seem to stop his mouth from moving. "And even if I did, I _definitely _wouldn't eat anything _you _made. I don't want to die, _thanks_."

Sakura couldn't help it.

She giggled.

And when the two boys turned to look at her in unison, opposite eyebrows raised, she laughed aloud.

"What?!" Naruto demanded.

"Maybe," she snickered, trying to catch her breath, "Sasuke, maybe you should serve some of Naruto's ramen to whoever you want to kill, then." Naruto's jaw dropped, Sasuke sputtered incoherently, and Sakura laughed so hard she rolled around on the ground.

Naruto was the first to get over his shock at seeing the normally silent girl laugh outright. He grinned as she managed to calm down enough to stand. "That was a good one."

"Thanks," she said, and looked down at the ground, still smiling.

There was a quiet pause, and Sasuke leaned against one of the stumps.

"We still don't know what this test is," he said, and the other two's smiles dropped.

Naruto looked around at the three of them, and Sakura just smiled sadly.

"It's okay, I probably won't pass anyways," she said. "But I think you two will."

She looked up at the boys, who just stared at her. She paled, and looked at the ground again. The nausea came back full force and she clenched her fist, the chain tightening around the flesh of her hand. Why, oh why, did she always have to make a fool of herself? First saying that, about the ramen, and then this… She was drawing too much attention, then they would notice and realize just how weak she really was.

* * *

The boys however, both watched in shock as the pink-haired girl in front of them completely shut herself off again, like at the academy, and wondered why she had opened up so suddenly before.

* * *

"Good morning class!" Kakashi-sensei called from the edge of the clearing. They whirled around to face him.

"YOU'RE LATE!" Naruto yelled. Sasuke frowned, but Sakura just tightened the chain on her hand. The battle had already begun, and she didn't even know what they were fighting for.

"Sorry, I got lost." Kakashi-sensei's eye crinkled up in a smile. The three genin just stared at him. He cleared his throat, and set an alarm clock on the middle stump.

"Alright." He turned to face the kids. "I have two bells. Your mission is to steal them from me before noon. Anyone who fails to take a bell from me doesn't get any lunch and will also be sent back to the academy."

Sakura kept her face expressionless, but inwardly was confused. Kakashi-sensei didn't sound malicious, just slightly sadistic and… Tired? And why threaten them with food as well when the academy was a much, much bigger threat?

"There's three of us," Sakura pointed out quietly, more from Naruto's benefit than her own.

Kakashi-sensei nodded. "One of you is going to fail, of course."

Sakura saw both Sasuke and Naruto glance at her out of the corner of her eye and tried to squash her nausea. She knew she should be the one to fail.

Kakashi-sensei continued, seemingly not noticing the silent exchange between the genin. "Attack as though you mean to kill, or you'll never stand a chance against me."

"HA!" Naruto exclaimed. Sakura was beginning to think he couldn't say anything _not_ loudly. "You couldn't even dodge my eraser! You're gonna get yourself killed."

Kakashi-sensei looked at him for a long moment. "Only the weak speak loudly."

Sakura winced inwardly. She knew that, and still couldn't keep her mouth shut.

"Now," the jounin continued. "We shall start on my signal."

Sakura felt the meager amount of killing intent from Naruto spike as the boy ran towards their sensei, fully intent on attacking but their sensei was behind him instantly. He twisted the razor-sharp kunai Naruto held to his own neck, and the boy froze, face twisted in rage.

"Not so fast," Kakashi-sensei chuckled under the mask. "I didn't say 'go' yet." He studied the boy underneath him, trembling in fury. "Although, you did strike to kill me. Hmmm, I might, maybe, be starting to like you three. "

"Ready, set, GO!"

The four ninja disappeared.

* * *

Sakura turned and jumped up into a tree, making sure to use chakra to stifle the sounds of her landing. Her chakra was insignificant enough she wouldn't be noticeable, and the wind was blowing towards her, away from where Kakashi-sensei stood by the river. She was careful not to make a sound as she tried to locate her teammates without drawing Kakashi-sensei's attention. Sasuke was nowhere to be found, and Naruto…

"Oi!" Naruto yelled, standing a few meters from where their jounin-sensei stood, arms crossed. Sakura sighed. "It's time for the match to begin! It'll be a battle worthy of the greatest warriors!"

"Um," Kakashi-sensei said. "You may be thinking of the wrong kind of match."

Sakura saw Naruto visibly twitch. "The only thing that's wrong here is your hairstyle!" Naruto yelled, and rushed forward to attack. She stifled the urge to laugh. So many times she had watched Sasuke and Naruto arguing in class and now they were, temporarily, on her team.

"Lesson number one," Kakashi-sensei said. "Is Taijutsu." The masked man pulled something from his pack, and Sakura tried to look closer to see what kind of weapon he was using. It was orange, that was for sure. But…

Did he just start reading?! In a taijutsu fight?!

Naruto stood in front of the jounin, dumbfounded.

Sakura heard a few twigs snap quietly to her left, and looked down. She found Sasuke, who was lying under a bush in wait.

"Is something wrong?" Kakashi-sensei asked Naruto, not looking up from the little orange book. "I thought you were coming for me?"

"But you… Why… I mean… THAT'S A BOOK!" Naruto sputtered out finally.

"Of course it's a book. I've been dying to find out how this story ends. Carry on." He waved a hand towards Naruto, "It shouldn't make any difference in the outcome, considering who I'm up against."

Naruto quickly became furious.

"I'M GONNA FLATTEN YOU!" he screamed, and charged towards the jounin. Each time he tried to land a hit, the instructor dodged neatly, all while reading and occasionally giggling at the story. It looked infuriating to Sakura.

Finally, their sensei snapped the book shut.

"Showing your back so many times is very poor taijutsu," Kakashi-sensei said from behind Naruto suddenly, and Sakura's eyes widened. He was making the sign of the tiger. But that was…

"ONE THOUSAND YEARS OF DEATH!" Kakashi-sensei yelled, hands pointing upwards, and suddenly Naruto went flying, clutching his behind. Sakura stared.

Did he just…?

Naruto landed in the river, and Sakura shook her head and began to plan. The mission was to get the bells, so that meant either a close-range taijutsu fight, which had already been attempted in vain by Naruto, or making Kakashi-sensei immobile. He was an ex-ANBU so this mission might be impossible, but not being able to win didn't mean she wouldn't try. That was something she learned how to do every night until she collapsed. And as long as she could make him believe he didn't need his Sharnigan eye, she might have a chance with a clone or transformation.

At that moment, five Narutos burst out of the water to attack Kakashi-sensei, and Sakura gaped. Each of those bodies were completely solid! What technique was he using?!

The Narutos struggled to hold the taller man down, but suddenly Kakashi-sensei wasn't in the group of orange bodies. Sakura blinked. A transformation? Or…

"Why hello there," Kakashi said, and Sakura whipped around.

"Hmmm…" he said, studying her, "You're the unknown factor in this little group."

Sakura pulled out a kunai and rushed towards him on the branch, seeing her chance. The jounin dodged and blocked her arm, but Sakura used his hold on her wrist to flip up and around him. A quick twist of her hand made sure Kakashi-sensei would get sliced if he kept his hold on her for long, so that her kunai wouldn't be used against her. She tried to sweep out a hand near the bells, but he threw her away. She flipped in the air, and landed on her feet on the ground in the clearing. He would have to show himself to reach her now. He jumped down from the trees in front of her, and they studied each other silently for a few seconds.

Sakura charged him again silently, expecting him to move behind her like he did with Naruto. He didn't fail her expectations. Instead of keeping her momentum going forward, she planted a foot in the ground, rooted herself with chakra, and spun backwards, shuriken flying. Kakashi disappeared and the shuriken landed in a log mid-air. Sakura surveyed the trees, but blinked as Sasuke and Naruto came into view, lying on the ground.

"Sakura," Sasuke said, and coughed. Blood came out of his mouth, and Sakura paled as she saw his entire body riddled with shuriken and bloody. Naruto was the same way, but unconscious and his neck twisted at an unnatural angle. Dead.

Sakura grimaced, and put up her hands to dispel the genjutsu. It wasn't hard to repress the tiny amount of chakra she did have. And besides, Uncle Shin had provided much, much more detailed images of death. Her parents included.

"Where did you go, Kakashi-sensei?" she said softly to the empty forest, and then jumped up into the trees. She followed the sound of fighting, a big wooshing sound, and Sasuke's surprisingly girly yelp.

Sakura quickly made a basic illusion clone and ran inside it, making it so that Kakashi-sensei wouldn't notice a difference between the clone and the real thing. The clone attacked Kakashi-sensei while he was giving the immobile Sasuke a lecture, and Sakura sliced at the jounin's side while he was distracted by the attack of her clone on top of herself. The two strings on the bells snapped, and Sakura immediately threw shuriken at her sensei, blocking him from being able to reclaim them. He jumped backwards, hand reaching toward his side as the clone dispelled.

* * *

"Well, unknown factor indeed." Kakashi said, rubbing his neck. "Never underestimate your opponent." He studied the small girl. She had nowhere near the muscle memory or flexibility ability to be that fast, or the ability to create an illusion clone that quickly while attacking. She must've made the clone long before she attacked. Had he known he would've needed the Sharnigan, this would've ended very differently, but for an academy graduate that was not a Nara to reach this level of strategy was… Impressive. Even beyond Sasuke's abilities, and Naruto's surprises.

Sakura paled and shook her head, picking up the bells. "No sensei, if you had been expecting it, or used your other eye, I wouldn't have had a chance." Kakashi watched as Sakura turned towards the mostly-buried Sasuke and helped move the dirt and rocks around him so he could get out.

"You looked up my bingo book profile then, I assume?" he asked. Sakura looked at him, then quickly nodded. Too quickly, Kakashi noticed.

The three walked over to where Naruto was strung up by the trap, and Sakura cut him down. She then handed the two boys the bells. "You deserve these," she said quietly. Sakura then nodded once at Kakashi-sensei and jumped into the trees, running back towards the village gates alone.

* * *

She wiped a tear from her eye and ground her teeth together. She knew it was useless, and she knew that those boys needed to be genin much more than she did. They had potential to be strong, and they had dreams to push for. Sakura, she was just did what she was told. Even if she had got the bells, it was only because she had taken advantage of the boys being tied up. If the two of them had been loose and worked together, she wouldn't have stood a chance.

* * *

Kakashi stared at the two boys. They stared at the bells in their hands. And then all three males looked towards where Sakura disappeared to.

"Sakura got the bells?" Naruto asked Kakashi. The jounin nodded.

The boy looked at the bell in his hand and then at Sasuke. "It's not right. She deserves them, cause she got them."

"For once something out of your mouth makes sense, idiot." Sasuke smirked at him.

"We'll be right back, Kakashi-sensei," Naruto said and the two boys went to follow Sakura, leaving Kakashi behind. He blinked. And then pulled up his hitai-ate and activated the Sharnigan to see if anyone had been using a genjutsu on him. And then blinked again, pulling down the Konoha hitai-ate.

He looked at the memorial of the people who had died serving Konoha and smiled.

"I think I finally found them, Obito, Rin, Sensei."

Kakashi picked up the three bento boxes and went to go catch up with his new students.

* * *

Meanwhile, Sasuke was getting increasingly frustrated at Sakura. She was impossible to find.

"Eh, Sasuke?" Naruto asked, while they were running towards the village. "Do you think she went back to the academy?" Sasuke shook his head and looked around.

"Oi, you two." Kakashi-sensei called out behind them. They whirled around to face the jounin, and he pointed up at the top of the Hokage monument. "She's up there."

* * *

Sakura sat on top of the Fourth Hokage as she looked out over the village.

"Sakura!" She heard someone yell behind her. She turned and looked at the bright orange jumpsuit and sighed. Naruto. And Sasuke was right next to him.

"Yes?" she asked quietly.

"Why did you give these to us?" Sasuke asked rather bluntly.

Sakura paled and looked away from them, back over the village. She was quiet for a long moment. "Because you both would have gotten them anyway, and you two need to be shinobi more than I do."

Naruto stared at her. "What?"

Sakura sighed, and wrapped her arms around her knees, not looking at the boys.

"No one sees me in this village, Naruto. But I'm okay with that. You didn't even know who I was until yesterday. But you can make people see you, and you have a dream to be the Hokage one day. To achieve it, you need to be a shinobi. And Sasuke, you have someone you want to kill. Someone who is insanely strong. And you need better training, to be able to fight. Being in a team will help you do that."

"And what about you?" Naruto asked rather loudly. "You're stronger than both the asshole and me, you deserve to be a genin."

"No, I don't. But even if I did deserve it, I don't need it."

"But, you said your dream was to be strong and protect people, right?" Naruto asked, grasping at anything that might convince her.

Sakura smiled slightly, still looking away from him. "That's an impossible dream, and not nearly as important as either of yours."

Naruto glared at her. "YOU A-"

"Well, well, well," Kakashi-sensei appeared in front of the three of them, cutting off Naruto's impeding tirade. "It seems I've found you three." He handed the genin the three bento boxes. "Congratulations."

Naruto, Sasuke, and even Sakura looked up at him in confusion. "You pass."

"WHAAAAAA~?" Naruto exploded. "But you said only two would pass!"

Kakashi nodded. "It's true, I did say that. But true shinobi always look for the hidden meanings within the hidden meanings." Naruto scratched his head, and Sakura stared up at their sensei. "Sakura, you have violated the rules I set forth in the exercise." She paled, but also tensed, ready to fight. Interesting, Kakashi noted. But the jounin smiled again. "In the shinobi world, those who violate the rules and fail to follow orders are worse than trash," he continued.

Sakura looked away from the older man and back to the village, biting her lip and twisting the chain around her wrist nervously. "I know," she whispered.

"Ah, but it seems there is something that the three of you do not know." Kakashi chuckled as the three looked up at him with matching expressions of confusion. "Those who do not care for and support their friends are even worse than that! And the three of you have shown that you do care.

"The goal of this exercise was for the three of you to work together, even if one of you were to fail. If you boys had worked together, you may have been able to get the bells from me. However, Sakura surprised me, using Sasuke as a distraction and attacking while I was talking to him. She wasn't being obvious about her abilities, and probably could have fought for much longer than you two did. But she decided to give you the bells in order to help you two grow. You both rejected that because she deserves the prize. You three were looking out for each other. And so… You pass!" The jounin's eye crinkled in a smile.

Naruto grinned. "YEAH! IM FINALLY A NINJA!" he crowed happily.

"Tch, idiot," Sasuke muttered, but he smirked slightly.

"Eat up, ducklings! Our real missions start tomorrow. Meet me at the Hokage's tower at 9am." Kakashi winked at the stunned Sakura and disappeared. The three looked at each other, shrugged, then opened their lunches and began to eat.


	5. Drowning

_**Drowning**_

* * *

Uncle Shin was _not _in a good mood when Sakura returned to her house that evening, particularly when he noticed that she still wore her hitai-ate.

"Well, I suppose the Uchiha boy needs a team to proceed," Shin said to himself after her careful explanation, twirling a senbon around in his fingers dangerously. Sakura swallowed and watched every muscle in his shoulder and arm, in case he were to throw another one at her. "And with the two failures, Hatake can focus all of his training in him."

Shin's arm suddenly extended and Sakura dodged the senbon that landed where her shoulder had been moments before. "You, brat," he said. "Keep an eye on the Uchiha boy for me. Tell me what he knows, and what he's learning."

Sakura bowed. "Yes, Uncle."

He turned to the scraggy pink-haired girl, who flinched nearly imperceptibly as his killing intent spiked. Shin smirked. Oh this was fun, to play with the mouse. "You can start by telling me how the Uchiha fought against Kakashi-_sensei,_" he sneered.

The girl froze, and Shin raised an eyebrow and waited for the brats' response. "Well...?"

"I, I did not see it," she stammered quietly.

Shin was silent for a few moments.

She could not be killed until she became completely useless.

* * *

Sakura felt all the blood run from her face as the waves of killing intent spiked, and she clenched her fist so tightly she half expected it to bleed underneath the chains. The pain distracted her from her fear and it helped her move, to be able to dodge through the stifling killing intent clouding the room.

"And why," Sakura flinched when Shin finally spoke. "Did you not see it?"

His voice sounded like ice.

"Kakashi-sensei had used a genjutsu on me," she answered in nearly a whisper, tracking Uncle Shin's every move from behind her bangs. She had to be ready.

Uncle Shin moved almost imperceptibly fast across the room, and his hand slammed into the wall where Sakura's head had been a few milliseconds before. His face showed no emotion, but the house shook and the frames of her parents on the wall rattled. Sakura stood near him, tensed and fearful. She couldn't count on being able to dodge him forever.

"And I haven't taught you enough to escape from a measly genjutsu, brat?" Uncle Shin said to her, voice low and undertoned in rage. Sakura didn't reply, because speaking only ever made it worse.

His eyes narrowed, inspecting her. "It seems you need a remedial lesson, then."

Sakura heard a loud crack, and the back of her head exploded in pain. Her vision went black and she cried out, but lost consciousness before she hit the floor.

Suddenly everything became crystal clear, and she was falling. She desperately tried to dispel the genjutsu, but hit freezing cold water face-first and couldn't breathe, couldn't move, as the water filled her mouth and ears and she _was drowning again_...


	6. Questions

_**Questions**_

* * *

Sakura nearly fell asleep the next day outside the Hokage's office again, waiting for Kakashi-sensei with her team. She hadn't gotten very much sleep last night, when every time she closed her eyes she felt the crushing darkness and pain of drowning and of not being able to breathe.

But something was niggling at the back of her mind. People were obviously glaring at Naruto, but being in a team with him had made it quite obvious to Sakura that he wasn't a danger to anything but their egos. And he couldn't have possibly pulled enough pranks to annoy _everyone_ in the entire village. And his pranks weren't bad enough to make people, even shinobi, _afraid _of him…

"I don't know why he's always so late," Naruto grumbled to himself. Sakura smiled to herself as he fidgeted, obviously not able to keep still.

"Um, Naruto?" she said tentatively. He turned around and squinted up at her.

"What?" he asked, obviously annoyed. Sakura clenched the chain tighter around her wrist, but continued on because she knew it was just Kakashi-sensei's lateness that had him annoyed, and most likely not anything she had said.

"What was that technique you using yesterday, against Kakashi-sensei?" she asked, mainly to distract him from concocting some intricate prank. At that Sasuke stood up a little straighter, obviously listening in, and Naruto perked up.

"Oh, it was this one really epic jutsu thingy I got from..." he frowned and then trailed off. "Well, nevermind about that, but it's super awesome! It's like the regular clone jutsu, but it's called the Shadow Clone, and it's a whole lot easier to do." Sakura raised an eyebrow. She knew it required an immense amount of chakra just to create one shadow clone, much less the five the boy had made yesterday. Uncle Shin had occasionally made one in their spars.

"That sounds really cool. Do you think you could show me how?" Sakura said, curiosity finally getting the better of her. And Naruto was so open it was almost too easy to get him to talk. Except for his one slip earlier, but she could tell he didn't want to talk about it.

"Sure!" he replied, and then remembered Sasuke was standing right behind him. "But not while the asshole is standing right there. It's too awesome for him to know it," he stage-whispered conspiratorially. Sakura giggled as Sasuke huffed and tried to pretend that he wasn't listening.

"Then what about you?" Sasuke asked Sakura pointedly, curiosity finally getting the better of him too. "Where did you learn to fight that way? You never did stuff like that at the academy," he accused.

"My uncle spars with me at home, that's all. He's a chunin, so..." Sakura trailed off. "I only used what the academy had taught us in the school spars," she said finally, unable to think of a better explanation that wouldn't make the two boys suspicious or worried. The real reason was that the spars were fake. They weren't dangerous or real, and she was always tired.

However, the boys both stared at her calculatingly for some reason.

"And _that,_" the three looked up at Kakashi-sensei as he walked towards them. "Is part of the reason we do missions for the village."

"ARE YOU _ALWAYS _GONNA BE LATE?!" Naruto yelled.

"Now, now," Kakashi-sensei said, eye crinkling up in what was supposed to be a harmless smile. "Is that any way to talk to your elders, Naruto? Better get a move on, or we're going to be late!" He said cheerfully and strolled right through the doorway leaving the three genin behind, stunned.

"OI, HOLD UP, YOU'RE THE LATE ONE HERE!"

The three rushed in to follow behind their incredibly _late_ sensei.

* * *

"Hey, old man! Give us a super cool mission, pleeeeaaaaaaaaase?!" Naruto burst out as soon as the four walked into the Hokage's office, to Sakura's absolute horror. He was going to be punished for disrespect and then the Hokage would be mad and send them back to the academy and-

"I'll see what I can do," the Hokage chuckled, and Sakura's mouth fell open. She glanced over at Sasuke, who was also staring at the Hokage and Naruto in surprise. "However, since the three of you have barely graduated, you will have to do some basic missions within the community first in order to understand how they work, and to give you a chance to train as a team before you are sent off on more dangerous missions. I'm sure you understand, Naruto."

Naruto crossed his arms in a pout, but Sakura figured he was too excited about actually being a ninja to put up much of a fight. She still couldn't quite wrap her head around the fact that Naruto knew the strongest shinobi in the village, could call him 'old man,' and still come away alive, though.

"I think I'll start you off with a simple mission. This scroll of information needs to be taken to the central library." The Hokage held out a scroll, which Naruto eagerly grabbed. "Come back as soon as possible, and I'm sure Kakashi will start you up on your first real mission report." The old ninja looked at Kakashi seriously, but the jounin just whistled innocently.

"YEAH!" Naruto punched the air and then raced out of the office. Sakura blinked and Sasuke sighed, then followed their overexcitable teammate.

Kakashi followed his team out of the office, one hand raised lazily in a farewell.

* * *

Predictably, Naruto had no idea where the library was at all, and had realized this fact as soon as he had got outside of the main building. He waited impatiently for the rest of his team to basically _crawl_ to the front doors at an _incredibly _slow and boring pace.

Sakura came out of the building first, closely followed by the bastard, and then the lazy excuse of a sensei they had.

Sakura smiled at him, which did weird things to his stomach that wasn't just spoiled milk. People didn't usually smile at him. And she was usually always so serious and sad, or tired-looking. She was pretty when she smiled, even if she wasn't _nearly _as pretty as Ino was. "I'd thought we'd have to catch up with you at the library, Naruto," she said.

"Ahahaha," Naruto laughed awkwardly, rubbing his head. "I thought it would be a better idea to wait for you guys, since we're a team and all."

The bastard raised an eyebrow. "You forgot where it was didn't you, idiot."

Naruto growled and tried to throw a punch at Sasuke to wipe the grin off his stupid face but was suddenly airborne, held up by Kakashi-sensei who still was reading that stupid book.

"Lemme at him, I'll flatten him into the dirt!" Naruto yelled, trying to wriggle out of his sensei's grip. Sasuke's smirk only grew bigger. "I'm _not stupid!_"

And then Naruto stopped as he heard a sound he hadn't heard before yesterday. Sakura was laughing again. Quietly, but she was still laughing. He and Sasuke glanced at each other, wide-eyed. Neither of them had ever heard her speak in more than a few ritualistic words at spars in the academy, much less actually laugh, before yesterday. And she was doing it again.

"Well you're the one with the scroll we're supposed to deliver," Sasuke said, trying to cover up his confusion.

"Hmph," Naruto crossed his arms, feeling the scrolls weight in his hand and trying to not show how weirded out he was that Sakura could actually laugh. It wasn't a bad thing, but it was still _strange_. "I know that."

"Then act like it for once, moron."

Naruto turned up his nose at the bastard still laughing at him – _he __**knew **__Sasuke was laughing on the inside – _and stomped away, planning revenge. Sneaking into his house and switching all his food out for ramen was too nice, the bastard didn't even _deserve _the instant ramen. Maybe he'd just put super spicy stuff that burns in Sasuke's milk. And bed. And water. And soap. And clothes. And weapons. And hair. And-

"Um, Naruto," Sakura giggled softly. "The library is the other way." Naruto spun on his heel, pointedly ignoring the three of his teammates and stalked off the in the opposite direction. Sasuke and Sakura followed him, snickering quietly, with Kakashi-sensei picking up the rear.

* * *

Hatake Kakashi wasn't actually reading at the moment though, he was inspecting his team by _extremely covert_ methods (looking over the top of his book at them).

Their teamwork could use some adjusting, but it looked like they already had a routine nearly set up from day one. Sasuke and Naruto understood each other well, he thought, and Sakura could hopefully balance the two out. Though Kakashi had the feeling that, despite the two other boys' ambition and abilities, she would be able to keep up with them quite nicely and maybe even continue surpassing them in technique, strategy, and control. She may turn out to be a leader yet.

While the two were still genin ranked in ability and maybe low chunin for Sasuke's taijutsu, Sakura was already at least a mid-chunin rank in taijutsu and strategy, if not higher, and her chakra control was amazingly efficient for a genin her age. But there was hardly any of her chakra to speak of, now that Kakashi inspected her chakra coils (while his ducklings couldn't see him use the Sharnigan, of course). They were strangely dull and held such a small amount for even a genin it was actually laughable when compared to Naruto's insane and even Sasuke's large reserves. They were honestly a little lower than a civilian's chakra level, so she should by all rights be in a state of chakra exhaustion.

But she kept walking, watching Sasuke and Naruto's banter with a smile that Kakashi suspected she rarely ever wore.

He knew that she could keep fighting for much longer than either of the boys had the stamina for, at least without a break, so how had she gotten so ridiculously powerful for her age?

It wasn't from the Academy, which had tested her at below average, nor was it something she had learned on her own. She didn't have an ambition like Naruto or Sasuke and even if she did Sasuke was a prime example of just how far self-teaching could go. She fought like she had battle experience, but she also wasn't afraid to lose. She didn't have the arrogance that went with her level of strength; she actually had absolutely none. She was insecure and fearful, as evidenced by hiding her face by her hair and that chain she wrapped around her left hand and forearm, but she fought without any reserve. She underestimated herself compared to her peers, but also knew her limits and exactly what she could do.

It made absolutely no sense.

He frowned, remembering back when she had said something about an Uncle Shin training her at the introductions. Shin must've been a chunin rank to train her at least to where she was at, but… Her strength was the kind that people got from fighting much stronger people, repeatedly, and barely coming away alive. That experience had broken many shinobi, and made even more unfit for the similar ANBU training regimen. Uchiha Itachi and he, Kakashi, were the only ones who had made jounin at such a young age, and although she wasn't quite as strong as that, Kakashi recognized the same signs.

His eye narrowed almost imperceptibly.

He resolved to figure the girl out, but in the meantime, it looked like missions in the morning and training in the afternoon for his three ducklings. Team fieldwork required a finesse they didn't really have yet; the boys needed quite a lot of work before they were ready, and Sakura still had a ways to go yet to be completely efficient on a team.


	7. Decisions

**Chapter 7: Decisions**

* * *

_**Decisions**_

* * *

A week after their first mission, Sasuke woke up and groaned as he switched on the light. He hurt _everywhere,_ from that stupid team sparring_._ Kakashi was going to be late again today anyways, he could probably just sleep in…

And then Sasuke's eyes flew open and he jumped out of bed. Naruto had nearly pinned him on the ground yesterday in their spar during training. Sasuke was getting stronger, too, so of course he had beat the ridiculous loudmouth, but it was getting harder to do. He sure wasn't going to laze around when Naruto was training. If the class dunce was ever stronger than him, there was no way he was going to be able to beat Itachi.

Sasuke ground his teeth together as he got his breakfast and headed to the training grounds. Sakura had been helping the idiot train, making him go over the basic drills until he could do them perfectly. Sasuke could already do that, but maybe if he asked for help he'd get stronger faster...

* * *

No, that was a stupid idea, he thought, watching from the shade of the forest as Sakura poked at Naruto's form. He'd have to train with Naruto, of all people. Being on a team with him was enough irritation already.

Sakura motioned Naruto to attack her and he did, but she dodged perfectly and bopped Naruto on the head. After the quick exchange, Sasuke saw her stagger, just slightly. He had observed quite a few of these moments. Headaches, when she would wince as Naruto hollered, nausea when she would place a hand protectively over her stomach, dizziness when she used chakra to balance her body. Sasuke figured it was just because of an intense training regimen she did at home, so he didn't worry about it too much, but he couldn't help being a little annoyed. For as strong as she was, she had to know that you needed to rest after training, and it seemed like she never slept. There were dark circles around Sakura's eyes every day, and she always seemed to be on guard. Except when she was laughing.

Sakura recovered instantly, of course, and had Naruto come at her again. Sasuke snorted. They were both stubborn morons.

Naruto's head whipped around and found him standing by the trees, and Sasuke almost groaned.

"Oi, bastard, I'm gonna take you on, believe it!" he crowed from across the clearing, pointing towards the Uchiha.

"You couldn't beat me in a million years, idiot," Sasuke replied, and tried not to think about the fact that Sakura had respectfully and wordlessly wiped the training ground with both of them during spars, even when Kakashi had the two boys gang up on her.

"Why don't you join us, Sasuke?" Sakura asked softly.

He glared at her, and then regretted it instantly when she looked down again. How did she act so utterly ashamed of herself when she was so strong?

"I can do all of that already," he tried again, in a slightly less forceful way. It apparently didn't work, since Sakura hunched down even further, so Sasuke glared at Naruto instead. "Besides, I think the moron needs all the help he can get."

Naruto face turned purple, twisted in rage, and he flew at Sasuke. "You bastard, I'm just as good as you!" he hollered.

Sasuke dodged the fist coming towards his face, but barely managed to avoid the leg coming at his neck. He blocked it and skidded back a few inches. Naruto flipped and landed lightly on his feet, hands up.

"Make sure you use your torso," Sakura called out. "And if you're going to go around him, don't show your back, Naruto."

"I got this!" he yelled, and attacked Sasuke once more. Sasuke blinked, defending himself against Naruto automatically. Had Sakura just roped him into the training session anyway?

In his distraction, the idiot slammed a fist into Sasuke's chest. He jumped back and studied the furious loudmouth for a moment. That wasn't something he had ever done or been able to do before. Sasuke could usually predict every single move he made.

He quickly took his opportunity to tie the orange eyesore up with ninja wire and leave him hanging upside down from a tree, turning a violent shade of red and yelling at the top of his lungs.

"Naruto, you have to watch Sasuke, or at least be ready for anything," Sakura admonished lightly.

"Hmph," Naruto began grumbling to himself in the tree and swearing vengeance on Sasuke, who merely smirked again. After a moment of satisfaction, watching Naruto struggle uselessly, he turned towards Sakura again.

"If you have anything decent to teach me that I don't know already, I suppose we can train together," he muttered, studiously avoiding her gaze. But he could still see Sakura's grin out of the corner of his eye.

"Really?!" she asked, still smiling.

Sasuke stayed silent as a faint flush crept up his neck, but it didn't seem like Sakura needed a reply. At least this time she wasn't laughing.

He needed all the help he could get to be strong enough to take his revenge on Itachi, anyway.

* * *

Kakashi smiled as his pink-haired student immediately started Sasuke on a strength training regimen. The Uchiha looked less than pleased with his luck, but gritted his teeth and used all of his strength to pummel the daylights out of the unforgiving post.

Sakura was a very, very good teacher. Kakashi still wasn't sure how she kept on standing and fighting with her levels of chakra, but he did know about her chunin uncle and the abuse she was going through, night after night. He was currently at war with himself on whether or not to intervene, though.

Shin, as an active ninja reporting to the Hokage, couldn't suddenly disappear or suspiciously change routine without a good reason. Kakashi couldn't kill a fellow Konoha ninja, as he so dearly wanted to, and still keep his genin team, no matter how much everyone needed him to have the Uchiha and the Jinchuriki. Also, Shin was a bastard, yes, but Sakura was strong because of that. Until Kakashi lost all of his humanity, he couldn't train innocent kids the way Sakura had been trained. He didn't know how to give children the strength to withstand torture without actually torturing them, and usually jounin didn't have to supply that particular training anyways.

Because that's what happened on the higher ranked missions.

That's why the genin did the easy ones first. To understand the civilians, the people they were protecting, before they were thrown into subterfuge and war and inevitably broken.…

But maybe that wasn't the right approach with his team. Every single one of them had been put through a kind of hell already, and they had all become a much stronger person because of that, in their own way. They weren't true kids, anymore. They had the hearts of children, but the pasts of tortured shinobi. Perhaps he could train them to a level they could handle mentally, to be stronger than the average genin or even chunin.

All of them were determined do their absolute best, but Sasuke was the most broken one of the three. While the other two didn't have a family (because Shin didn't count, not the way a parent was supposed to) Sasuke had watched his brother, a person he admired and looked up to more than anyone in the world, turn into a murderer right before his eyes. And so Sasuke didn't have that ability to see other people, to understand them or even want to, anymore. And Kakashi supposed that was to be expected, because he had both known and lost much, much more than the other two.

Perhaps they could handle the more in-depth training, if he watched Sasuke closely. And as for Shin, well maybe he'd just have to convince the Hokage to give him nice long and most likely fatal missions until his genin got their own nice, long, easy missions out of the village. Or possibly just switch the missions himself, the Hokage wouldn't mind his meddling later on.

Kakashi had his hands full, now. He needed his genin to grow exponentially, and he needed to keep up Sakura's strength without her bastard of an uncle around. He sighed. Maybe it was time to use the Sharnigan for their training…

* * *

_The next day…_

* * *

"I will be leaving on a recon mission, and will probably be gone for the next week. I will expect you to give a full report on Sasuke's development when I return."

"Yes, Uncle." Sakura bowed, barely able to contain her excitement.

Shin disappeared, and Sakura ran up the stairs eagerly.

She stopped in front of the door to her parents' room, suddenly nervous. She always did this when Uncle was gone, but this time she was a real shinobi. Even if Uncle said she didn't deserve it, well, she probably never would.

She took her hitai-ate off her waist and tied it around her forehead, sliding her bangs to the side so the Konoha leaf was visible. She could pretend, right? Her parents would understand. They weren't like Uncle Shin.

Sakura took a deep breath, turned the door handle, and walked inside the bedroom she had memorized by heart. She looked around at the room, with her father's two traditional katana lying in the corner and her mother's extra set of shinobi armor lying on the bed. They had been left behind when her mom and dad went on that mission, to Sound. That, and a picture, was all she had left of her parents.

Sakura climbed onto the bed and sat there silently for a few minutes. Then she went and touched the armor, committing it to memory once more. She drew the black-bladed swords and held them, measuring their weight. They were heavier than they looked, but still razor-sharp and beautiful.

She was a shinobi now. She could learn to use the swords, and take them on dangerous missions. Sakura wasn't big enough to fit into her mother's armor, but she planned on using it when she could. It was just lucky Uncle Shin had never cared about anything in the house.

A dog barked outside, bringing her back, and Sakura spun around, eyes wide. She had completely forgotten they had another mission today! And even though Kakashi was always late, she still trained with the boys until he came.

Sakura ran to the training grounds as quickly as she could, and let out a sigh of relief when she heard both boys arguing loudly. She was honestly worried they would knock each other unconscious if left alone together for too long.

She stopped at the edge of the clearing to watch the boys and couldn't help smiling.

"Your punches are too strong, idiot. If you put your entire strength in them and lose your balance then you just end up on the ground looking like a moron." Sasuke said, effortlessly deflecting Naruto's strikes.

"Grrrr….." Naruto growled at him, looking for an opening. "Yours aren't even strong, isn't that why you had to punch a piece of wood for hours yesterday, bastard?"

Sasuke glared and this time caught Naruto's punch mid-air and pulled his arm downwards, flipping Naruto over onto his back. "At least I can stay on my feet, dumbass."

Naruto jumped back on his feet, _snarled _at Sasuke and lost what little composure he had. Sakura observed his movements carefully. He was steadier on his feet as he attacked Sasuke, though he still forgot most of the balance and stances she had taught him in his rage.

So he needed to use his skills in combat more often. Hmmmmmmm…

"They're still getting much better though, aren't they?"

Sakura jumped, and whirled around to face Kakashi-sensei.

"Ye-yes they are," she stuttered in surprise. "But Kakashi-sensei, it's so early! Why are you here?"

The jounin smiled. "I wanted to check up on my lovely ducklings. But more importantly, I wanted to ask what your home training consisted of, Sakura."

Sakura stared up at her sensei. "Wha- why?! I mean, all we do is fight, and spar, so…"

"Sakura," Kakashi cut her off gently. "You are much, much stronger than those boys are now, and stronger than nearly all of the genin I know of in Konoha. They need to grow stronger, and so do you, for our missions. But I need to know how you got your strength, and fighting instinct."

Sakura stared at her sensei. "Uncle Shin," she started, trembling, and looked towards the boys, taking a deep breath. "He uses me to train. We spar a lot, until I can't be a useful partner anymore. And we'll work on dodging practice, endurance, signs – although I can't really use any ninjutsu very well – speed, and stealth in the Haruno yard from the time he comes back until around midnight or later."

Kakashi raised an eyebrow. "And you manage to keep up with that every night? That's quite impressive."

Sakura looked up at him in confusion. "Not really, it's been a routine for years now. He doesn't think I'm very good at all, and I can never keep up with him. And it's not every night, just a couple times a week."

Kakashi stared at the rest of his team thoughtfully. "Hmmmmm. And what about your chakra seal?"

Sakura went white. "He, Uncle said it would help me learn how to control it better, and be able to fight without chakra."

Kakashi placed a hand on the girl's head and felt her calm down slightly. He ruffled her bangs and said, "Alright. Thank you for telling me that. Sakura, would you go get the boys, and meet me at the training grounds we had our bell test at?"

Sakura nodded beneath his hand and heard him disappear from behind her.


	8. Memorials and Memories

_**Memorials and Memories**_

* * *

Kakashi stood in front of the memorial stone, looking at the names of his former teammates and former friends. Obito, Rin, Kushina, and Minato.

That was a team of people who had grown up in a war, and who were taught how to fight without reserve because of it. They had to learn that way, because as soon as shinobi were awarded the rank of chunin they were sent out right behind the front lines.

From the start, his experience was of war and blood and even the kindhearted Obito and Rin had adapted to it, for the short time they were alive.

That was the reason that there were such a ridiculous amount of Jounin ninja around today. Battlefield promotions meant a whole lot more than tests, back in the third war. Fighting experience was worth much more than a staged competition.

Kakashi sighed. He still wasn't entirely sure how he was going to get his genin team battlefield ready without mentally scarring them, but today he had a good idea. He grinned to himself, remembering when Minato had recruited Kushina in the making of that particular exercise. They both had an uncanny knack for pranks and anything mischievous, much like Naruto. And well, today, he would use Naruto to his _full_ advantage.

"OI, KAKASHI-SENSEI!" Naruto yelled out from across the training field. Kakashi lazily raised a hand, acknowledging him, but didn't turn around.

"Hello, Naruto, Sasuke. Sakura, thank you for bringing them here," he said, when his ducklings had caught up to him.

"Of course, sensei," Sakura replied.

"Why though?!" Naruto asked, squinting at the memorial stone and trying to read the inscription. Sasuke looked as confused as Naruto, but Kakashi noticed that Sakura kept her eyes on the stone in one particular spot, which held the names of her parents.

"I asked you to come here because your names might end up on this stone." Kakashi said. "And you need to understand what that means."

"YEAH!" Naruto pumped his fist in the air. "The Fourth is on here, I'll get recognized with him, finally! When do we get our names on here, Kakashi sensei?!" he practically yelled. Sasuke rolled his eyes, but Sakura flinched. Kakashi didn't answer.

"They were all killed, Naruto," Sakura said quietly, after a moment. "They died, fighting as shinobi."

Naruto stopped suddenly and looked from the stone to Kakashi, and back to Sakura. "Then," he whispered, "These people, some of them were the ones that _he_ killed…"

Sasuke started, then looked curiously at Naruto as he slowly walked up to the memorial.

Naruto put one hand on his stomach and with his other, he traced the letters of the names written eleven years ago.

"My teammates are on there too, Naruto," Kakashi said. "Being a shinobi isn't glamorous. You die for what you believe in, whether that's because of your loyalty, or your love for fighting, or any goal you have, chances are you will be killed."

Kakashi studied his genins' faces, and for once they were all giving him their full attention.

Good.

"My job as your jounin instructor is to make it so that you'll survive those fights. You already know that. There will be accidents you can't foresee, or traps you can't outwit, and I can guarantee some of your friends will die. But for you three to have a chance of surviving you're going to need luck and quite a bit more training. For today, I will train you three here. Up until now, you've learned the basic mission formations and procedures, and while those are good, you'll need some simulation practice with them. Plans will usually go to hell, if you three have inherited the shinobi luck. And I think you probably have."

Kakashi handed them a paper he had written out this morning, of a particular drill his own team had done to prepare for battle. Revised, of course, with Naruto in mind.

He hoped his ducklings appreciated all of the effort he had put into this exercise. Kakashi smiled to himself. Naruto made some things so much easier.

"Alright, Naruto, I want you to make 50 shadow clones and have them come with me." Naruto closed his eyes in concentration for a few seconds, and carbon copies of himself exploded into existence. "Good. You three will attempt to follow the instructions on that sheet. Have fun!"

Kakashi's eye crinkled upwards in a slightly sadistic smile, and he led the 50 Narutos into the surrounding forest.

* * *

Sasuke squinted at the writing on the paper, almost in awe.

"I can't read it," he said, after a while of trying to decipher it. "I didn't know anyone could write that badly."

Naruto peered over his shoulder. "Seriously?! Man, Kakashi writes worse than me! But that part says we're supposed to find a note disguised as an explosive tag on a tree at exactly 347.2 meters away from the upper left corner of the memorial stone at 4:30 o'clock, for a- a scavenger hunt?."

Sasuke and Sakura stared at Naruto, then back at the page. "Well," Sasuke said, looking at Sakura finally. "We've got nothing else to go on."

Sakura shrugged, and they started measuring distance with their ninja wire.

* * *

"Um, guys…" Naruto called out from a ways in front of the two measuring the distance they traveled. Sasuke groaned.

"If you say you need to pee one more time I'm gonna deck you," he grumbled under his breath. Sakura giggled, and Sasuke looked back at the wire in his hands quickly.

"No, it's not that! Uhhhhh…."

Sakura and Sasuke finally caught up to Naruto, and they both stopped and stared at the scene in front of them too.

It was truly amazing. The amount of work that had to have been put into that was astounding.

Sasuke turned to Naruto immediately. "This was your idea. Kakashi has fifty of you, hiding in the forest, ready to prank us," he glared.

Naruto turned white as a sheet. "Oh no…"

* * *

The first three Narutos Kakashi had left behind to terrorize his ducklings snickered to themselves, watching Team 7 approach them. One even rubbed his hands together and cackled quietly, when he saw the three genin stop and stare at the masterpiece.

The entire tree had been completely covered from top to bottom in identical explosive notes, and the ground around it for at least two meters was also nearly completely covered with notes. There were only about 20 actual explosive notes on the tree, a fifth of them produced a loud bang with smoke, and the others were all duds. Only one particular note was the one the team was actually looking for.

The clones watched as the team huddled together, discussing.

After a while, Naruto broke off and went around the area, in a scouting pattern. Sakura pointed at the tree, and Sasuke nodded. She took his kunai knives, and threw them precisely in between the explosive notes. Sasuke jumped and grabbed the kunai in the tree, and started inspecting the tags in that area, hanging from the knife by one hand. He shook his head after looking around them for a while, and motioned Sakura to throw another knife. She did and he swung up to it, and repeated the same motion.

"Alright, so what can we do? We have the pit for them, but we screwed up where to put it, soooo…" one of the Naruto's said. The others frowned, then one spoke up.

"Well we can't kill them, but we can blow up stuff that's not around where the actual note is."

The third nodded, "But we gotta take out Naruto first, he's scouting."

"One of us can switch with him?" a Naruto threw in. The other two nodded.

"I want to!"

"No, I want to! I'm the better Naruto anyways, let me do it!"

"You both are idiots," the third clone huffed. "Obviously I'm the leader, so I should get to do it."

The two other Narutos both stopped abruptly, turned, and glared at the one who spoke last. He gulped and started backing up slowly. "Bastard," they both snarled in unison, and lunged.

Before they could hit him, though, they heard a loud excited shout right above them.

"Ha!" the original Naruto crowed, "I found lots of myself!"

The real Naruto threw a punch at the one who had professed himself the "leader," and the clone exploded into oblivion. He tried to attack the other two, but each time he made a move, they only jumped backwards or evaded him.

"Dang it," the real Naruto grumbled. "I really am getting better at fighting."

The two clones backed up suddenly, sharing a grin with each other, and then turned and jumped into the bushes a ways back.

"Ha!" A clone called out. "Betcha can't get us!"

"This isn't hide and seek!" Naruto exploded, but ran after them anyways.

And promptly fell in a deep hole that had been set up in front of the bushes.

_Ohhhhhh, _he thought, rubbing his behind, _that's why they jumped. Dangit._

He tried to climb out of the pit, but the sides were slimy with something he couldn't see very well. Wait. Was that _blue paint?!_

"AAAARRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHH!" he yelled in frustration, while his two clones snickered above him.

* * *

Sakura watched the trees around them nervously as Sasuke swung from kunai to kunai, looking for the actual note. Naruto hadn't come back to check in for a while, and she supposed he was fine, but fifty of his clones running around the forest did _not _make her feel safe.

"It's not here either," Sasuke called back to her. She sighed.

"Let's try on the opposite side of the tree, in the same area then." she said. Sasuke nodded, and swung from kunai to kunai as she threw them out for him to use.

Suddenly a huge blast exploded into them from above, and Sasuke threw himself away from the tree. He and Sakura ran back what they assumed was a safe distance from the tree if it began exploding in a chain reaction, and turned to watch, but the tree was completely silent now. The top left corner had been completely destroyed, and there was nothing left of it but black char.

Sasuke looked at Sakura, but she shook her head. "I didn't do anything."

"Probably a squirrel, then," he decided. But they still were a bit more careful about where they stepped as they approached the tree again.

Sasuke hopped from kunai to kunai that Sakura had thrown in between the explosive notes and started searching the tree again for the note Kakashi had left. After a while, he sighed and hung from a kunai to rest.

"I haven't checked by the top yet," he called, and Sakura nodded.

"I'm kind of worried about Naruto, he hasn't come back yet…" she replied quietly, throwing some more knife-holds into the tree.

"Ha! Probably drank rotten milk again like he did last week," Sasuke scoffed. Sakura smiled.

"Maybe."

Just then, the tree right below Sasuke exploded into smoke, and he jumped back and gave a sharp cry. While he was in the air, another note – this time an actual bomb – exploded right underneath him. It threw Sasuke back into the surrounding trees.

"Sasuke!" Sakura cried out. She stood in a battle ready-stance, she had seen a shuriken land into the tree right before it exploded. There was someone around them.

"Ugh," Sasuke grumbled, picking himself out of a bush. Sakura took one look at him and giggled.

Sasuke had leaves and sticks coming out of his hair, his headband was nearly as lopsided as Kakashi's, his shirt and shorts were both charred, and there was a black smear of charcoal across his chin. It all made a very nice picture with his distinctive embarrassed scowl.

"It's Naruto's clones. I saw one, right before it threw the shuriken." he said in a low voice that promised revenge. Sakura only laughed harder; tufts of hair stuck up like ears on the top of his head, making Sasuke look like a very disgruntled kitten that had fallen into a muddy pile of leaves.

Sasuke huffed and turned back to the forest, cheeks turning slightly pink as he tried to flatten his hair again.

"Shhhh!" he said suddenly, and Sakura quieted instantly, letting him listen. They both heard a very familiar cackle at the other side of the clearing. Naruto.

"BAHAHAHAHA I GOT YA GOOD BASTARD!" a Naruto crowed. Sakura and Sasuke ran over to confront the clone, but it suddenly disappeared in a _poof._ The smoke cleared and a figure came into view behind it, completely blue and dripping.

"Naruto?" Sakura asked.

"I'm gonna kill me," the blue genin said viciously, glaring at the tree.

Naruto walked up to the explosive notes, squinting at them, and then stepping on one. Sasuke flinched, but nothing happened, and Naruto hopped from one note to the other silently. He stopped at the base of the tree, wiped off his hands, and then pulled a note from its trunk.

"Here," he growled, and handed it to Sakura, facing the forest. "If Kakashi-sensei is gonna play dirty, well so am I." He put his hands together and made hundreds of clones, each one bolting into the forest as soon as it popped into existence.

"I can get the memories of any clones I explode, apparently." Naruto explained after he was done, still glaring at the surrounding woods.

Sasuke smirked, looking slightly more feral than usual, and cracked his knuckles. Sakura just shook her head and smiled at her teammates, but she pulled out another kunai nonetheless. A common enemy made them work very well together.

"There's a bridge, 50 meters west. We're supposed to destroy it, after getting another note from underneath it," she said, after a moment of deciphering the handwriting.

"So what's the plan?" Sasuke asked her, and Sakura almost dropped the note and her kunai. She stared at the two boys facing the forest away from her. They were going to trust her with the plan?!

"Umm," she started saying hesitantly, and then growing more confident. "Formation three, we'll scout it out and use the coded shuriken. Targets are the clones first and foremost. Avoid sensei."

The three genin disappeared into the forest.

* * *

Kakashi inspected his three students after that particularly good training session. They were all charred in multiple places from that first satisfying step in their scavenger hunt, and Sasuke was covered head to toe in mud and leaves and limping slightly. Naruto was actually walking at a normal person's pace and had large splotches of blue paint on him, (his hair was now a bright blue-green) and his orange jumpsuit had been torn to shreds, so he was left in a pair of ripped shorts and a scraggly t-shirt. Sakura was the least dirty, but she was still hunched over and breathing hard. Kakashi quickly checked her over with his Sharnigan, and then reassured himself that she would be alright. Shin was gone for two weeks at least. He made sure of that.

"Good job, team," he said, hopping down from the tree above them to ruffle and mess up their hair even more than it already was. The boys glared at him with an impressive amount of killing intent that quickly faded into exhaustion, but Sakura just sat down on the grass and started laughing quietly.

Naruto and Sasuke stared at her for a moment and then they both grinned, and Naruto let out a loud bark of laughter and collapsed into uncontrollable snickers. Sasuke even chuckled, and then all of team 7 was laughing.

Today had been a good day.


	9. Hidden Meanings

_**Hidden Meanings**_

* * *

Sakura went back home after the training and ate a snack, smiling happily. Her plans had worked, for the most part. They had found sensei after going through bushes, swimming through water after the bridge had turned out to be an illusion (at least it got most of the dirt off), going through a huge spider's web, breaking two genjutsu, and tracking down a random rabbit that had another hint on its fur. There had been traps set with dull weapons, paint, water, syrup, and one memorable bucket that had dumped wet, slimy ramen noodles all over Sasuke's head. Sakura had to admit that that one had been perfectly planned by Naruto's clones, and she couldn't stop giggling at Sasuke expression, no matter how severely annoyed it got. Naruto kept muttering dire threats against his clones and Kakashi-sensei the whole day through, which was also incredibly entertaining.

She sighed happily, absentmindedly swirling the water in her cup using chakra. The boys had both worked together seamlessly, almost as if they could read each other's minds when they were mad at the same person. It was a big accomplishment, especially for two people who never stopped insulting each other, but she wished it could happen more often.

After a while, Sakura decided to take a bath and went up the stairs to get ready, taking stock of what injuries she could feel. There weren't many, in fact, but still enough that she would be sore in the morning. She filled the tub with warm water and then looked in the mirror in the bathroom.

And froze.

She had forgotten that the Konoha hitai-ate was still tied around her forehead from that morning. The whole day she had worn it, showing off her identity as a shinobi of the leaf for everyone to see, labeled across her head, and she hadn't even noticed. Her bangs had fallen over part of it, but enough showed to make it clear what she was wearing so obviously.

Sakura swallowed and then carefully untied the headband, fingers moving very slowly.

She took it into the tub with her and looked at it, inspecting every tiny blemish and washing the fabric and steel clean.

Did she count as a shinobi now?

Kakashi-sensei had never once told her she was weak or not doing enough after that first meeting, and she had to admit that she was slightly better at fighting than the boys, though with a bit more practice that would quickly change. And Sasuke had even graduated at the top of their class, so why did uncle Shin believe she was so weak?

Naruto and Sasuke both learned incredibly quickly when they were determined to do so, though. Maybe that was it.

Did Kakashi-sensei think the same thing about her as Uncle Shin, and just not tell her? Sakura bit her lip and set the headband aside, sliding deeper into the water. She had thought she was doing so well, but, was it all for nothing?

She tried not to cry, but…

* * *

Sasuke walked into his apartment and relaxed slightly, letting out a real smile. Today had been a good day, and his reaction time had noticeably improved. He ate quickly and then went to bed after cleaning up with practiced precision, but it was a long time before he went to sleep.

His apartment seemed too quiet, too silent. Like right after…

No. He wouldn't think about that tonight.

That decision though, didn't stop the nightmares. It never did.

* * *

Naruto ate at Ichiraku's, talking with old man Ichiraku and Ayame about that day's training session, and why he was covered in blue paint. They all had a good old laugh over it and then after eating a ton of ramen, he went home alone.

One person stopped him on the way though, someone he had never met before.

"Are you lost, sweetie?" The lady asked kindly.

"Uh, no," Naruto scratched his head, confused. This hadn't happened before.

"But you're so dirty, and all alone at night like this, where are-" The lady cut off in the middle of her sentence and her eyes narrowed. "Oh." She said, all traces of kindness gone. "You're _that _boy. Well, never mind." She sniffed, annoyed, and walked away quickly. Too quickly.

Naruto clenched his teeth together and moved on. She hadn't recognized him under the paint without his bright orange jumper, he assumed. Just once, though, it would have been nice to have someone care.

Naruto went home and began to practice furiously. He was still terrible at ninjutsu, and Sakura had given him chakra control exercises to help.

He would show them. All of them. And then they'd _have _to recognize him, to respect him like Iruka-sensei did.

Naruto had cried enough, now it was different. Now he was a shinobi. He _wouldn't _give up.

He couldn't give up, anyways. He wasn't better than the Fourth Hokage yet.

* * *

Kakashi sat across from the memorial stone, staring up at the stars.

His genin could easily do a C-rank, by now. Technically they hadn't nearly done enough D-ranks to qualify, but with the relationship between Naruto and the Hokage, Kakashi assumed that they would get one relatively soon.

In the heat of their first real battle, Kakashi expected Naruto to clam up, Sakura to look out for the team and finish the mission, and Sasuke to systematically destroy the opponent. If his suspicions were correct, then the only thing that would help the team would be more "situations," particularly ones where Sakura wasn't protecting Naruto.

Kakashi let out a breath, trying to think of what would best prepare them. Sasuke would be the one with textbook strategies to all situations, which was a problem. That kid trusted authority too much. To believe that a textbook could teach you as much as an experienced ninja was something incredibly naïve that Kakashi had completely expected from him. None of those strategies were applicable inside a real situation at their level, with no experience.

Naruto was a strong jinchuriki, an imaginative prankster, and a walking accident surrounded by incredible luck, (whether it was good luck or bad Kakashi honestly wasn't sure). Sasuke was the last of the Uchiha in Konoha and the brother of a man who easily murdered his entire clan, and Sakura was already at a high chunin level in strength, strategy, and experience.

Now let's add in the infamous Copy-Cat Ninja, and see if all of the missions we go on _don't _go to hell in a handbasket, Kakashi thought to the Hokage sarcastically. Even if he basically been roped into this team to be a bodyguard for the Uchiha and the Jinchuriki, that didn't necessarily mean it was a great idea.

Well, he would be ready, whatever happened. That much he promised to his old teammates.


	10. Situations and Frustrations

_**Situations and Frustrations**_

* * *

_Except_ for what was going on the next morning, Kakashi decided.

He sighed and settled in a tree nearby with his book, waiting to see how his most prodigious duckling handled the situation. (He was most definitely _not_ getting in the middle of a genin disagreement, or worse, _**preteen girl drama**_.)

* * *

That morning, Sakura had taken a long time to decide what to do with her headband. It was the picture in her parents' bedroom that finally settled the matter for her. In that photo her dad was being incredibly goofy and her mom smiling quietly, but both of them were wearing their hitai-ate proudly across their foreheads. And if they could, so could she. She was their daughter, after all.

* * *

Before she got to the training grounds, however, Sakura was blocked by a furious-looking Ino dragging along a bored and slightly annoyed Shikamaru beside her. Behind them both meandered along Chouji, predictably munching on some snacks.

"_You,_" Ino snarled at Sakura and let go of Shikamaru, marching to within inches of her face. "I told you _not to interfere._"

Sakura just stared, wide-eyed, at Ino for a moment before shuffling back a step. "Wh-what?"

"With _my Sasuke-kun._" Ino stepped forward, closing the distance between them again and glaring at the pink-haired girl. Their hitai-ate nearly touched, and Sakura swallowed but recognized that Ino would only close any distance she put between them again, and stayed put. She looked down at Ino's shoulder.

"I have?" she whispered, very quietly.

"I've seen you _looking _at him, and he is **MINE**!" Ino yelled and swung a punch at Sakura, who had seen her shoulder tense and had ducked back immediately. "You watch him, every day, and you try to _help _him! HA!" Ino launched after Sakura, turning wildly to land a hit on her, but Sakura dodged every one, still in shock. "Sasuke-kun is the greatest, and you're just dragging him down with you, _Pinky_," she hissed. Sakura stumbled a bit as she evaded another strike. Wasn't Sasuke getting better at fighting though, with her? He wasn't getting worse, at least she didn't think so. But…

The nausea was coming back.

"Troublesome," Shikamaru muttered on the sidelines, and Sakura glanced at him for just a second, trying to figure out if he was going to start throwing weapons as well. She really hoped the boys wouldn't join the fight.

Sakura jumped backwards again, away from Ino, and then saw shuriken come flying at her. She pulled out a kunai and blocked them mid-jump.

Sakura landed and focused sharply on Ino's arm, gauging where she would throw next, but the fight was suddenly and unexpectedly cut off by a deep, rough voice.

"Ino."

Ino froze, but Sakura didn't look away from the other girl.

"Hi Asuma-sensei!" Chouji waved a chip at the taller man, who had appeared with a cigarette dangling out of his mouth.

"Hey, kid." the jounin, Asuma smiled back at him, and then his kind face turned serious as he looked back at Ino, who hadn't turned away from Sakura and was still glaring in rage. "Ino. Drop it." Ino didn't react for a few, long seconds, but finally straightened from her attack position. Her eyes still burned.

"And a note of advice to you, Sakura, was it?" The girl in question glanced briefly at the other team's sensei, who smiled back in a tight-lipped way. "When you're facing Ino, don't stop moving," he finished.

Ino smiled suddenly, her whole demeanor changing to a calm and friendly one. "Watch your back, Sakura," she stated softly.

Sakura said nothing in reply and Ino turned her back on the girl, flipping her hair over her shoulder with practiced ease and sauntering over to walk next to her sensei. Their team walked away, but Sakura didn't stop watching Ino until they were out of sight.

When they had disappeared from view, she ran towards the training grounds, desperately trying to convince herself she wasn't making her teammates weaker. She flexed her hand and felt the chain tighten around her skin, and Sakura let out a shuddering breath. She _knew _she wasn't dragging down her team, but…. She couldn't help but wonder if Kakashi had made the wrong decision, keeping her with the boys.

* * *

When Sakura reached the training grounds, she was met with a familiar sight. Naruto and Sasuke were there, arms folded and both glaring away from each other with nearly identical expressions. She stifled a grin at the sight of them.

"Hi," she said quietly, almost hoping the boys wouldn't hear her and she could just go back to watching them like she used to in the academy. That way, she couldn't hold them back, or hurt their dreams.

Sasuke jumped and Naruto whirled around, face splitting into a grin. "Sakura!" he cried happily.

"Where were you?" Sasuke grumbled, and Sakura shifted nervously.

"Ah, I ran into one of our old classmates," she said, desperately wishing they wouldn't ask anything else. However, Naruto was full of questions.

"Who was it?" he asked excitedly. "Was it Ino? Did she say anything about me?!"

Sakura flinched imperceptibly at Ino's name, and then nodded. "Yes, it was Ino's team, but she didn't say anything about you, I'm sorry," she replied quietly, with a glance towards Sasuke.

"AW _MAN!_" Naruto whined loudly, then whirled on Sasuke, pointing an accusatory finger. "ONE DAY I'M GONNA BEAT YOU SASUKE, AND THEN INO WILL _HAVE _TO LOOK AT ME!" he yelled, and then attacked his rival.

While Naruto and Sasuke were occupied, Sakura pulled out a tiny jar of from her pocket and streaked a little of the contents on a scratch left over from her fight with Ino. The cream would heal it in a matter of seconds, but before it was done, she glanced up and saw Sasuke's eye on her, studying her for just a short second. She turned pink and hurriedly put the cream away, hoping that he wouldn't ask about it.

He didn't, when the impromptu spar was over and Naruto was lying out cold on the ground, but that didn't help her feel any less nervous because now she didn't know what he was thinking. It was just a small cut, so he might not have even noticed, but if he did, she had no idea how she would explain it.

* * *

After Naruto had regained consciousness, he turned back to Sakura. "Are you going to have us do something else today before Kakashi-sensei comes?"

Sakura wound the chain around her left wrist, frowning thoughtfully. She usually would come up with an idea for practice on her way here, but Ino had preoccupied her thoughts that morning. "What do you guys want to work on?" she hedged, wanting them to decide this time.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow at the question, and Naruto squinted confusedly. "Whaddya mean?"

Sakura let out a small laugh, relaxing a fraction. "Well, is there anything you want me to show you today?"

"Uhhhhhhh….." Naruto was at a complete loss.

"Chakra control," Sasuke decided. "Jutsu will be easier if my control is better."

Sakura nodded, relieved that she knew how to help them do that, and then went over to the trees across the clearing. "You've done the leaf exercise at the academy, right?" Sasuke nodded shortly and followed her. Naruto trailed after both of them, obviously trying to remember what leaf exercise they were talking about.

"Well now, instead of at your forehead, you'll gather chakra at your feet, and make yourself stick to a tree trunk, and walk up it slowly, without slipping." Sakura walked over to a tree at the edge of the clearing and focused her chakra, then stepped onto it. She stuck her foot to the tree and then walked up it, enhancing her muscles with chakra to keep her straight.

"WHOA!" Naruto yelled excitedly. "That's so cool!"

Sakura grinned and flipped off the trunk, landing next to the boys. "If you two use too much chakra, you'll shoot off the tree and probably disintegrate the bark. Too little and you won't stick. I started off low, on a log or roots or something like that until I got the hang of it."

"I'll beat you at this, bastard! You can bet on that!" Naruto hollered at Sasuke, already running towards a tree he had apparently chosen for the exercise. Sasuke rolled his eyes and then turned to the tree Sakura had shown them on. He closed his eyes, concentrating on the feel of chakra in his feet, and then Sakura watched him step onto the roots of the closest tree precisely where she had, wobbling precariously. Satisfied, she ran through the taijutsu sets Uncle Shin had shown her before his last mission. But she couldn't shake the feeling of not being good enough, of not being able to teach Naruto and Sasuke enough for them to achieve their dreams.

Even worse, she was afraid of holding them back, just like Ino had said.

* * *

"Morning."

Sakura jumped as her sensei materialized behind her.

"Good morning Kakashi-sensei," she replied with a small bow. She felt something tap her forehead, and she looked up. Her sensei was tapping her headband with a finger thoughtfully. Sakura swallowed.

"You wore it like this yesterday too, didn't you, Sakura?"

She bowed again, more quickly this time. "Yes sensei." Sakura chanced another glance at his face, and… was he smiling?

"It looks good on you that way," Kakashi said, without a hint of reprimand in his voice. "You're a shinobi now, after all."

Sakura let out a small breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding and felt her eyes water. She blinked hurriedly and shook her head.

"Thank you." She bowed once more and then turned to Naruto, who was still trying not to slide off the roots of the tree he had decided to practice on.

"Ah, Sensei," she said, her eyes squinting into a frown as she studied the smaller boy. "I have no idea how to help Naruto with his chakra. And I'm not good enough to keep teaching Sasuke and Naruto, soon they'll know everything I know and-"

Sakura stopped talking when Kakashi-sensei chuckled. "Don't worry about Naruto," he told her. "He'll figure it out. And right now, you teaching them is the best thing for this team right now. Soon enough their basics will become instinct, but until then, keep them doing it. You're doing a good job." Kakashi-sensei ruffled her hair, and Sakura felt her face heat up, as tears pricked the corner of her eyes once more.

* * *

Naruto finally looked up and saw who had just arrived.

"Kakashi-sensei!" he accused, pointing a finger. "You're _late!_" He then let out a yelp as his chakra promptly disintegrated and he slid off, landing with a small '_thud'_.

"Ah, well, you see, I lost my lucky pencil this morning, so I had to get a new one from the store in the next village over and then come back," Kakashi-sensei explained lazily.

Sasuke gave Kakashi-sensei a scathing _look_ and jumped down from the base of the tree he had been practicing on.

"That's ridiculous!" Naruto countered defiantly, getting up and brushing himself off. "There's no way!"

Their jounin-sensei nodded. "Of course not," he smiled. "I'll meet you at the Hokage's office."

And then suddenly and with no warning, Kakashi wasn't standing in front of them anymore. Sakura watched Naruto blink, then frown as he tried to figure out what happened.

"Was that a clone?" he asked slowly.

Sakura shrugged and Sasuke merely stared in disapproval at the place where the jounin had been. Naruto looked from one of his teammates to the other.

"Well I'm going to the old man's office for a super cool mission that worthy enough for me!" Naruto decided, and then marched off without looking behind him.

"What, collecting trash again?" Sasuke muttered under his breath. Naruto twitched.

Sakura hid her giggles as Naruto whirled around in fury. They really _shouldn't _fight so much.

* * *

They arrived only to find Kakashi-sensei already standing outside the door and reading intently. The three genin stopped next to him and waited for him to start moving, but he merely turned another page.

"Sensei? SENSEI?!" Naruto yelled, and waved his hand over the book Kakashi-sensei was reading. Naruto scowled, and made a grab for the book, but suddenly Kakashi-sensei was about half a meter left of where he used to be, still reading.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARR_RRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHH!_" Naruto yelled. "COME _ON _YOU OLD FART! I WANT TO _GET A SUPER COOL MISSION_ _ALREADY!_"

Sasuke just huffed and walked past Kakashi, and on into the building. "Jounin, huh?" Sakura heard him mutter. Naruto hollered in outrage once more and flew into the building, shouting at the top of his lungs something about the "bastard not beating him again!" and Sakura smiled.

She glanced up at her sensei, who snapped his book shut and winked at her when her two teammates were gone.

"They're too much fun to mess with," he said conspiratorially.

"They are pretty funny," she admitted. "I love watching them. I think they're really good friends, even though neither of them would ever say that."

* * *

Kakashi glanced down at her, then scratched his head thoughtfully. "You know, I think I might actually agree with you. Did you watch them a lot at the academy?"

Sakura stilled, and then nodded her head slowly, almost as if she was afraid of answering. Kakashi took a deep breath in order to keep himself calm. There had to be a more permanent solution to _that_ little problem, but now wasn't the time to find it. Right now, Sakura was shutting down. And that was the very last thing Kakashi wanted to happen.

He cleared his throat awkwardly, and ransacked his brain, trying to find something to say that would make her smile again. Sakura glanced upward at him, and words he was most definitely _not_ expecting to say came out of his mouth.

"I used to have a teammate a lot like Naruto, actually. We argued just like that, _all _the time. It drove the other two mad."

Sakura giggled softly, and Kakashi smiled in triumph. "Really?"

He nodded. "Yes, it's true. I was once a young, silly little ninja too."

Sakura smiled, almost slyly, and Kakashi blinked in surprise at her expression. "And now you're just an old, silly big ninja?" she asked mischievously. Then suddenly her face changed, like she was absolutely horrified at what she had said.

But Kakashi just laughed out loud, and with all the speed of the famous Copy-Cat Ninja he grabbed her by the ankles and jumped upwards to the window that was regularly left open in the Hokage's office for exactly that purpose.

* * *

Sakura let out a gasp and then laughed as he deposited her gently on the floor, right behind the Third Hokage. The old ninja turned around at the commotion and then chuckled himself, offering a hand to Sakura.

"Hello, Haruno Sakura," he said, as he helped her off the floor. The girl turned a shade of pink slightly darker than her hair and bowed quickly.

"Hello, Hokage-sama."

The Third turned a mock-disapproving gaze on the Jounin, who whistled innocently. "I do hope," he began, "that you aren't torturing your students, Kakashi. Dragging them in by their ankles seems a bit much. We do need them in working order."

Kakashi waved his hand dismissively. "Of course not. All of my genins are completely fine, without a scratch on them, and ready to work."

At that exact moment, Naruto and Sasuke burst through the door at the same time, each attempting to push each other back. Half of Sasuke's bangs were shorter, a sleeve was ripped off of Naruto's jacket, Naruto also only had one shoe and was limping slightly, and Sasuke had a beautiful shiner, just like the sunrise.

They both crowed "I won!" and then fell on top of each other in an exhausted heap.

Kakashi looked a little dismayed at the state of two-thirds of his genin team, and the Third Hokage raised an eyebrow at him.

"They did it to themselves!" Kakashi petulantly. "They were fine when we were outside!"

The much older shinobi just looked at him expectantly and Kakashi sighed. He walked over to the two boys and pulled them up by their jackets, setting them unsteadily on their feet. They blinked at Sakura, and since they only just noticed the presence of other ninja in the room, both of them frowned rather comically.

"I'm sorry, Sasuke, Naruto, but technically, we did win," Sakura said, covering a smile. Sasuke frowned harder and Naruto's jaw fell open, as they realized they had lost to the _laziest _sensei in the world.

"WAIT A SECOND!" Naruto shouted. "HOW COME-"

"Ah, Team Seven," Iruka, who had been watching the whole spectacle from the side of the desk, cut in hurriedly. "Now that you're here, we can get you set up with another mission."

"ALL _RIGHT!" _Naruto exclaimed, conveniently forgetting his earlier frustration.

Kakashi saw Iruka let out a sigh of relief, and inwardly agreed.


	11. Brief Encounters

_**Brief Encounters**_

* * *

"Aw, come on!" Naruto discarded his ripped orange jacket once again (he had found his missing shoe but not the missing sleeve of his jacket) and complained loudly as Team 7 walked across the village. "How come we gotta help some old weirdos move? That's _lame_!"

Kakashi sighed as he read his little orange book, not even bothering to answer the boy, and Sakura merely smiled to herself as Naruto continued to bemoan the unfairness of life.

Sasuke, however, ground his teeth together. "Shut up, idiot," he snapped at his teammate. Naruto stopped and stared at Sasuke for a moment, then cackled.

"Your hair is shorter on one side, and looks completely stupid! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Sasuke fumed as Naruto laughed. "And whose fault was that, _exactly_?"

"Yours, _duh. _You were the one who pulled out the shuriken, stupid."

"I wouldn't have, if _you hadn't thrown a kunai at me!_" Sasuke growled back.

Naruto waved a hand in dismissal. "It was still your fault though," he grinned. "Not so hot now, huh? Your hair looks like a two-year old tried to cut it off with baby scissors." He stuck his tongue out at Sasuke and raced off, snickering madly. Sasuke hissed and was about to go after the _moron_, but Sakura tapped his shoulder once and stopped him.

"_What?!_" he snarled, and Sakura took a step back, eyes wide.

"Uh, um well – I, I can fix your hair if you like."

Sasuke stood stock-still in surprise. "Huh?"

Sakura giggled, relaxing at his shocked expression. "I can fix your hair."

Sasuke frowned and glanced at Kakashi, who merely raised an eyebrow at him and went back to reading his book. "Hmph. Fine. But _quickly,_" he answered.

She stepped up to him and threaded her fingers through his bangs, measuring them. He stiffened uncomfortably, trying to look anywhere but Sakura. She pulled out a kunai in a flash of movement and Sasuke started to feel a little nervous about letting her near his hair.

* * *

"Part of your hair is cut off in the back too, I'll have to fix that. Don't worry, it won't take long." Sasuke's eyes flicked up in time to see her smile reassuringly, but he huffed and folded his arms, waiting silently for her to finish.

Sakura smiled again and quickly sheared off some of his bangs, making them all an even length. They _were_ rather short, she thought, and then she ran her hand through his hair again, making the bangs stick up slightly. That looked better. Different, but it still definitely looked good on him.

His hair was so ridiculously thick and soft it almost wasn't fair. Back in the academy, she never would have guessed that someday, she'd know what Sasuke's hair feels like. It was often the topic of many girls' conversations, and she _had_ wondered what it might be like. Now she knew.

What would Ino have thought?

Maybe once, she and Ino might've been friends…. But Sakura quickly crushed that train of thought. It never ended well.

She ran her hand through it once more, unable to stop herself, and then trimmed more of it to match the shorter strands.

She stood back and scrutinized her work, and then stepped around him to cut the back.

* * *

After a few moments, she came back into his field of vision. "Alright, you're done," she said with a small smile. Sasuke frowned, trying to feel how his hair was cut.

"My hair didn't used to stick up like that in the front…" he grumbled.

"It looks good that way though," she assured him. Sasuke felt his face warm and he quickly turned away, walking in the direction Naruto had disappeared earlier in.

"Thanks," he muttered, not turning around.

"You're welcome," Sakura said happily, from behind him.

Sakura was still smiling when they reached the old couple's house. There were Naruto clones everywhere, carrying boxes and lamps and chairs, and four of them were attempting to carry a table through the doorway that was far too big to fit, shouting to each other the whole while. She just laughed and shook her head.

"Well ducklings, let's get this over with," Kakashi said, snapping his book shut.

* * *

The move took the _entire _day. Carrying heavy boxes halfway across the village was _not _Naruto's idea of fun, and he made that opinion known to most of the village during the length of the mission. Of course, that was only up until the point where Kakashi-sensei hinted at there being a possible competition to see who could carry the most luggage and boxes to the new house.

At that, Sasuke and Naruto took off at top speed and Sakura and Kakashi-sensei were left to carry their boxes in peace.

* * *

"Thank you very much," the old couple bowed to the four Leaf shinobi, and Sakura felt her face heat up in embarrassment as the old lady smiled kindly at her. She didn't really do any of the work, it was the two boys who had done the majority of it, but when she opened her mouth to say something about it, the words seemed to disappear. Naruto and Sasuke seemed equally uncomfortable, but Sakura saw Naruto give the two of them a wide grin anyways.

"ICHIRAKU'S!" Naruto yelled in ecstasy, and Sakura smiled. It had become a Team 7 tradition to eat at Ichiraku's Ramen stand at least twice a week, when they weren't completely exhausted and ready to fall over. Lately, the heavy ramen food hadn't even been making her feel sick.

Sasuke always came, even though he made of show of thinking Naruto was an idiot the entire time, and sometimes even Kakashi-sensei would come (though she never saw him eat).

She treasured those moments, even when she knew they couldn't possibly last.

* * *

_A few days later..._

* * *

"How far away is the target?" a voice asked over the radio.

"Five meters and closing," replied another curtly.

"How long are we just gonna wait around?!" one yelled, accompanied by a loud whine.

"We're all in position, sensei," said the last, through static.

"Good. Now, GO!"

Three ninja jumped into action, closing in on a shadowy figure crouched at the base of a tree. They converged on their victim, blocking every escape. The figure growled and tried to fight back, but was quickly grabbed from behind and brought down while another ninja confirmed the victim's identity.

"You have no idea how much trouble you've caused to us," one of them grumbled. The victim managed to wriggle out of its captor's grip enough to give that one a long scratch down his face, hissing in fury.

Each escape had been cut off by these _demons,_ but they had no idea.

_No one had any idea._

* * *

Sakura looked on in mild amusement as the cat jumped out of Sasuke's arms and mauled Naruto half to death.

"Target captured and confirmed," Sasuke said over the radio to Kakashi.

"Mission complete. Good job, ducklings. You performed splendidly. Bring the target to the Hokage's tower."

"Yes, sensei."

Sakura reached over to Naruto, taking Tora from him carefully. The cat clawed her once or twice, but after she found the perfect spot to scratch on its head, it quickly calmed down.

"Are you okay Naruto?" she asked gently. Naruto merely huffed and stood up, pretending he wasn't bleeding profusely in quite a few places, but Sakura pulled out her jar of cream from her pocket and handed it to him.

"Here, this will help your scratches feel better," she said.

Naruto took it slowly with a confused look on his face. "But isn't this, well, expensive?" he asked with a frown.

"Don't worry, it's alright. I promise." She gave him a small smile, so he opened it and put a little on his cuts.

Sasuke grunted impatiently. "Come on, let's get moving."

The three ninja started the long trek towards the Hokage's tower.

* * *

"Hey, would you look at that! If it ain't dumbass Naruto and hotshot Sasuke!"

Sakura flinched as Kiba's voice cut through the crowd walking through the main street of the village, then sighed, stroking Tora's head once more. Both Sasuke and Naruto stiffened visibly as the Inuzuka came into view, bounding ahead of Hinata and Shino. Hinata balked at the sight of Naruto and turned beet red, but she kept following Kiba towards their team, keeping her eyes on the ground.

"Hey, wait a second," Kiba sniffed Sasuke. "You look different. What's up with the new hair?" Sasuke turned pink and kept marching towards the building, studiously ignoring Kiba. Who suddenly got a fist bashed onto the top of his head, courtesy of Naruto.

"I'm NOT _A DUMBASS YOU STUPID DOGBREATH WANNABE!_" he yelled. As they got into a scuffle, Sakura nervously shuffled a bit closer to Hinata, hoping that she wouldn't mind talking to her.

But Hinata smiled at Sakura, who felt a wave of relief wash over her. "Hello Sakura," she said softly.

"Hi Hinata," Sakura replied with a smile. "Thank you for that cream, I've definitely used it."

"You're welcome, Sakura. And I have used the wraps you gave me in training, they help very much." Hinata bowed formally. Sakura was secretly relieved, when Hinata had given her the cream she had no clue what would be a suitable present for the heiress.

"Are you having fun being a full ninja?"

Hinata nodded and glanced at Shino. "I like my teammates very much, and Kurenai-sensei is wonderful. She has taught us a lot."

"I'm happy for you," Sakura said, but the grin fell from her face. Kakashi-sensei didn't teach them very much. Was that because they weren't, no, _she_ wasn't good enough? Or did he just not like them? He didn't do very many things with them, except tease them, show up late, and give vague instructions that were hard to understand.

She twisted the chain tighter on her wrist, to help her breathe again. Kakashi-sensei trusted her, and that was why. She had to believe that.

"I do wonder what it is like to be on a team with Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto, however," Shino stated, interrupting her thoughts. Sakura glanced up at him in surprise, having heard probably the longest sentence Shino had ever spoken out loud.

"Uh, well, they do fight and argue a lot, but they tend to turn missions into competitions, so the work gets done pretty fast. They both work very hard," she finished nervously.

She had no idea what Shino might be thinking, but he seemed to consider what she said. Then he turned to follow the other three boys that had already gone to the Hokage's building.

"That means Shino thinks you're right," Hinata said quietly with another smile. "He doesn't talk much, but he doesn't think badly of anyone."

"Thanks, Hinata." Sakura looked at the shorter girl and the last of her discomfort evaporated. It felt just like old times, when they had sat next to each other every day in class. "Are you sure you still like Naruto? He's very weird…" she trailed off with a teasing voice. Hinata stammered and blushed, pushing her fingers together in distress. "I'm just teasing you, Hinata," Sakura said with a giggle. "Naruto works incredibly hard, and he's very strong too. He has this amazing jutsu-"

Sakura and Hinata started walking towards the Hokage's tower together as she told the other girl all about Naruto's antics, petting Tora calmly the whole time.

* * *

Team 7 waited impatiently as Team 8 got their next mission and left the tower. Well, it was mostly Naruto who was impatient, but he made enough of an impression on his own to make up for the whole team.

"Alright," the Third Hokage said. "The next mission for Team 7 will be, let's see, to babysit for the council of elders, to run messages to the neighboring village, to help dig sweet potatoes-"

"Nuh-uh," Naruto cut him off. "Those are all _lame_, and _boring. _I'm tired of doing stupid stuff! Give us an awesome, important mission that's gonna be _amazing!_"

Naruto folded his arms defiantly, staring at the Hokage with a very determined expression. Sakura heard Kakashi let out a tiny sigh, and glanced at Sasuke. By his expression, she knew he agreed with Naruto, and even she was excited at the prospect of getting a higher ranked mission. She knew they probably wouldn't be ready for a while, but someday, hopefully, they would be.

"Don't be a fool," Iruka replied angrily. "You're still just a beginner, Naruto. Everyone starts out doing D-rank missions, to gain experience and work up to the C-ranked missions."

"You three have only just become beginner ninjas, so right now you are most suited to these missions," the Hokage said, glancing around at the other teams taking them. "They keep the village running smoothly, and even the higher-ranked ninjas take them on occasion to help out the village."

Halfway through his speech, however, Naruto had turned around, sitting cross-legged on the floor. "Hmmmm, well I had pork ramen yesterday, so I think I'll have miso ramen today…" he mused to himself. Sasuke rolled his eyes and Sakura giggled quietly.

"Are you even listening?!" Iruka exploded.

"Are you kidding?!" Naruto shot back, turning back around to face the much taller ninja, glaring up at them. "All the old man ever does is tell me no, apologize, and then give me a super long lecture about why I shouldn't be mad about something _incredibly _lame."

Kakashi bopped Naruto on the head, knocking him off balance. "That's enough, Naruto. Be thankful for what you can get."

Sakura noticed that Sasuke had turned a slight shade of pink at Kakashi's admonition, and she knew he had been thinking the same thing as Naruto.

Iruka took a deep breath and looked at Naruto, who was still sitting on the floor, pouting. Sakura saw him smile slightly, and the Hokage looked thoughtful.

"I might have a C-Rank mission that you three could possibly do," the Hokage said suddenly. Iruka, along with every member of Team 7, stared at him in surprise. "I will permit you to attempt a task that is usually reserved for Chunin, because of the reports I've gotten about your D-Rank missions. Your clients tell me you perform well and finish all the jobs quickly. If you can show the same dedication in this next mission, we will see if you three are able to continue doing some more 'awesome' missions, Naruto."

Sakura's jaw fell open, and she could tell Sasuke was just as shocked as she was. The Hokage gave them a C-Rank mission, just like that?! Uncle Shin would've just laughed at her if she had even brought up the idea, and the _Hokage _said it was okay? Maybe, well… Maybe the Hokage didn't care if they couldn't do it, and was just showing Naruto that they weren't ready for such a hard mission yet, to put them in their place and to teach Naruto a lesson. But, everyone liked and respected Sasuke, she didn't think they would do that to him. So why…?

Sakura's stomach twisted into a knot and she tightened the chain around her arm until it began to burn, trying to distract herself from the thoughts she knew only went in circles, around and around again.

Naruto, however, had bounced back from his surprise with elation. "Seriously?! YESSSSSS! Thank you old man, I won't let you down, I _promise! _Oh man, this is gonna be the coolest mission _EVER!_"

The old shinobi chuckled. "Slow down Naruto, I haven't said what your mission will be yet."

"Well, then, what is it, old man?!" Naruto yelled in excitement.

"You will be protecting a bridge builder on his journey back to the Land of Waves. His name is Tazuna."

At that moment the side door to the office slid open. An old, muscular man walked in with a pack strapped to his shoulders and carrying a bottle of sake. He took a large gulp of it as he scrutinized the three kids over his spectacles.

"You three are supposed to be my bodyguards?" he snorted. "Bunch of green brats still wet behind the ears aren't _real_ ninja. Particularly the midget, he looks like a clown." Tazuna turned to the Hokage. "This is a joke, right?"

It took Naruto a minute to figure out who the "midget" was, but when he did, he turned bright purple. "I'LL KILL HIM!"

Kakashi-sensei grabbed the back of Naruto's jacket as the genin launched himself towards their client in fury. "Wrong. No killing the old man you've been assigned to protect."

Naruto just snarled at the old man, who raised an unimpressed eyebrow.

"I am an architect of renown across the Land of Waves. Until I am escorted safely into my own country, you three will be expected to protect me, even if it costs you your lives," he finished with a smirk.

Naruto crossed his arms in a huff, meeting the old man glare for glare, and Sasuke looked determined to prove himself. But Sakura could see it in Tazuna's eyes; he didn't expect them to be able to complete the mission. He didn't think they were good enough, and she knew he was right. She felt almost relieved, now that someone other than Uncle Shin had finally told her the truth of what she was.

If she died on this journey, well, it would be a kind of poetic justice, wouldn't it? Kakashi-sensei would finish the mission, when they couldn't.

"I leave tomorrow at noon," Tazuna informed the ninja, cutting through Sakura's thoughts.

"We will meet you at the village gate," Kakashi-sensei bowed respectfully, still holding on to the struggling Naruto. Sakura bowed quickly, following her sensei's lead, and Sasuke stiffly inclined his head. The old man snorted again and left, slamming the door shut behind him.


	12. Branded

_**Branded**_

* * *

"Alright, my cute little genin. We have our first escort mission!" Kakashi-sensei rubbed his hands together in anticipation that afternoon, after training. "That means we're stuck with each other all day and all night until this mission is over. Now, I want to make sure you three know what you're doing before we get out of the village, and so, tonight, the three of you will camp here, in the training grounds. Meet me back here in three hours with all the supplies you believe you will need on the trip. You won't be going back home before the mission unless you have to, so pack well. The academy covered this, correct?"

Sasuke grunted affirmation and Sakura nodded. Naruto just looked confused.

"Alright, _GO!_"

* * *

Shin wasn't back form his own escort mission yet, so Sakura sat on her parents' bed with all of her supplies spread out in front of her, thinking.

If she didn't survive the mission, what would happen to her mother's armor, and her father's swords? She couldn't stand the idea that Uncle Shin would keep them, even if they were technically his.

He didn't… He didn't care about them. Uncle Shin didn't even go in their room! He wouldn't notice they were gone.

Sakura's father, Uncle Shin's brother, looked at her from the picture on the dresser with a goofy smile, and suddenly she decided to take the last memories of her parents with her on what was most likely going to be her last mission. If she didn't come back, it wouldn't matter anyways.

However, it was impractical to carry around their weight on a trip, particularly a long one, and she didn't want them to get damaged. Maybe a sealing scroll could work…

Sakura quickly packed her bag, the way the academy had taught them. Clothes, then food and toiletries. Sleeping roll, first-aid kit after that, and finally the weapons were on top, everything neatly organized and tightly packed so they made almost no noise at all, even if the bag was dropped in combat.

She took a deep breath, and then stood up. Her packing was done, and she didn't have to be at the training grounds for another half an hour at least. Sakura grabbed a trash bag and carefully placed the weapons and the armor that needed to fit in the scroll in it. She put on her pack, scribbled a quick note to Uncle Shin, and threw the bag with the swords and armor over her shoulder. She ran out the doorway, up the wall of the neighbors house, and nearly flew over the village towards the store that sold gear and weapons, launching herself across rooftops with a speed she generally reserved for training with Uncle Shin. She landed in the alleyway next to the store less than a minute later and, taking a deep breath, she walked around calmly to the front.

* * *

She had been in this store only once before, when she was very young, and it still made her stare in amazement at everything around her. There were hundreds of kunai of every shape and size, and practically thousands of shuriken. There was body armor and rolls of different cloth for custom suits, knives, masks, headband replacements, and everything any shinobi could ever want.

Sakura went up shyly to the counter.

"I'm Kaiya, may I help you?" the old, retired chunin behind the counter asked her with a smile.

"Um, how much is a scroll, one that could hold some armor and a few weapons?" she asked nervously, shifting the bag on her back. What if she didn't have enough money?!

The old ninja, who was a wiry lady with thick, short grey hair and slightly stooped, peered over the counter to look at her more closely. "My, now if it isn't a little Haruno." She chuckled. "You have your father's hair, poor thing. You wear it much better than he did, though," she added with a wink. Sakura stared at the senior ninja openmouthed.

"You knew my father?!" she asked incredulously, after her mouth had started working again.

"Yes, I did," she shook her head in mock indignation. "He broke at least twenty kunai a month. He was definitely a regular customer."

"_Twenty?_" Sakura repeated, in shock.

"A month. At _least_," the old shinobi nodded. "His smallest sword broke quite a few of them, because he tended to use both at once when he fought. But," she smiled. "You're not here for kunai, are you? A scroll that could hold armor and weapons, hmmmm…." She ducked beneath the counter and rummaged around for a moment, and then stood back up with a small scroll in her palm.

"This ought to do the trick. The weapons don't happen to be your father's, and the armor your mother's, do they?"

"Um, ye-yes. I have them here." Sakura finally seemed to remember the bag that was on her shoulder and set it down on the ground.

"May I see them?" Kaiya asked.

Sakura glanced nervously at the bag. "Uh, ye-yeah. I guess. Just…" she trailed off.

"Don't you worry one bit, child, I'll be careful," the grey-haired chunin winked again. "It's good to see you're taking care of them." She shuffled around the counter with an old, stooped sort of grace, not making a sound with her small steps.

Sakura untied the bag slowly, watching the store owner carefully as she pulled out the suit and the swords and handed them over.

"Ah, I remember this old sword," Kaiya reminisced, pulling the longer blade out of its sheath. "The blade was one of the few swords forged in the traditional Samurai style ever given to ninjas. Your father was on a mission that crossed paths with a battalion of samurai, and he saved the highest ranking general in their nation from the Mizukage's son."

Sakura's mouth fell open. That didn't sound like anything Uncle Shin had ever told her.

"The samurai don't like to owe people, and so settled their debt with this sword." Kaiya continued, giving the sword an expert swing in the store.

"Now, for this little thing. Hmmm…" The old chunin set down the large blade on the counter and picked up the small one, barely half a meter long with its handle. "He used this blade more often, I think, so as to not ruin the other sword with kunai." Kaiya glanced at Sakura with an indecipherable gaze. "I made it."

Sakura's eyes went even wider. "Really?"

The woman nodded and slid it back into its sheath. "Had to replace the guard more than a few times, but yes. I made it, to match the other one. And if my memory serves…" she trailed off and reached into the bag once more, and pulled out the suit of armor Sakura's mother had worn. "Ah, it does. I also put together this lovely ensemble for your mother as a wedding gift when they got married. This piece here," she tapped the connection between the breastplate and the shoulder. "Was the absolute _hardest _thing I've ever had to create in my life."

"Why was it so hard?" Sakura breathed, curiosity finally getting the better of her.

"Because it had to be size-adjustable. That was your mother's wish, and why she came to me instead of just buying any old suit and painting it." Kaiya looked at Sakura meaningfully. "She wanted you to be able to wear it, when you were old enough."

Sakura's breath got stuck somewhere in her throat and she felt tears prick at the corners of her eyes. "I will," she said in a small voice.

"Well, then let's get you set up, then!" Kaiya grinned excitedly. "Come now, it won't take more than a few minutes."

She pulled Sakura's arm towards the dressing room with surprising strength, and suddenly Sakura didn't mind that she would probably be late to training.

Kaiya threw an undersuit of cloth-wrapped wire mesh and black stretchy fabric at her and shuffled into the back of the store again, murmuring happily to herself. Sakura stared at the fabric in her hands, and then back at the door where she had disappeared.

"Put it on, child!"

She jumped as Kaiya's voice came back to her through the doorway and slowly began to undress. She felt the suit for anything that might snag on her scars, and, finding none, she put it on. It didn't rub at all, which she was incredibly thankful for, and it didn't show the worst scars, which she was even more thankful for. It felt strange, like putting on someone else's skin and pretending to be a real shinobi.

As Sakura was putting it on though, she thought of something and froze.

"I don't have nearly enough money for everything you're doing for me," she explained to the owner when she came back.

"Bah, don't worry about any of that," Kaiya scoffed. "You're buying a scroll, aren't you? That'll do just fine for everything."

Sakura's protest was cut off short as Kaiya roughly pulled a front-and-back breastplate over her head. She handed her a glove, two arm-plates, and five pieces that went around one leg, and proceeded to buckle and put together the pieces of the left side of the suit. Sakura stared at Kaiya as she put on the armor, and then hurriedly tried to put on the plates on her other arm, copying the older woman's movements.

Once all of it was on, the woman stitched and sewed and used a small jutsu that Sakura didn't catch to make it all fit perfectly.

"I promise it comes off easier than it goes on," she chuckled. "All right, Haruno Sakura. What do you think of it?" Kaiya turned her around to face the mirror, and Sakura's breath caught.

The armor was beautiful and simple. It was red and grey, and slightly resembled ANBU gear, but across the left shoulder small sakura petals were engraved into the Haruno circle on the metal.

Sakura felt hot tears roll down her cheek and she reached up a hand to brush them away. "I- I can't wear this. I'm sorry."

She _wanted _to, though. She so desperately wanted to be able to wear her mother's armor it was almost unbearable, but she couldn't.

All the armor covered was a scarred, sealed, useless failure. It was as if a mouse was trying to put on a crown, or like Naruto trying to steal the Hokage's hat and wear it around the village again. It just didn't _fit._

She didn't deserve it, but she couldn't leave it behind. It felt like Sakura was ripping in half, with the memory of her mother so close, and still not being good enough for it.

Sakura wept as she unbuckled the left arm plate and set it down.

Kaiya silently went to her other side and began to untie the armor and take it off. "That's alright dear," she said after a while. "You can wear it when you're ready."

Sakura dropped her arm uselessly at her side and just tried not to cry as the old woman took the armor off.

She would be probably be dead before she was ready to wear it.

"Thank you," she said anyway.

"You're welcome, child. You're _always _welcome."

Kaiya sealed away the armor and the weapons into the scroll as Sakura changed back into her regular gear. Before she put the mesh undershirt on, though, Sakura stopped and stared in the mirror. If she looked, she could see her father's eyes and her mother's nose, and it was almost as if she could see them in the mirror.

But as her eyes traveled down her body, taking note of all the scars and burns that covered her, she saw the worst one, the one she had tried so hard to avoid seeing every day of her life. A huge scar blossomed out of the tiny, intricate pentagon-shaped seal on her stomach, looking almost as if it was a huge cherry blossom branded into her skin.

She wasn't her mother, and she wasn't her father. She was just Sakura.

She was a failure.


	13. A Place of Honor

_**A Place of Honor**_

* * *

Sakura wiped her eyes and desperately tried to control her breathing as she walked back towards the training grounds. She felt the carefully secured scroll pressing against her waist in a small, hidden pocket in her mesh undershirt and adjusted her mission pack once more.

I can do this, she thought fiercely. I _won't _let them worry about me.

Sakura arrived at the training grounds (before either of the boys) to find Kakashi-sensei sitting in front of the memorial stone.

"Hello again, Sakura," he said.

"Hello, Kakashi-sensei," Sakura winced a little as her voice cracked, but relaxed when Kakashi-sensei made no mention of it. He patted the ground next to him, and Sakura went over to sit with him, looking at the names of all of the shinobi who died protecting the village. She found the familiar names of her parents, and her throat closed up and her vision went blurry once more.

"Even academy students are on here, if they died protecting Konoha," the jounin said, almost thoughtfully. "The Leaf honors everyone who dies fighting."

"Wh-who were they, for you?" Sakura asked finally, fighting back tears.

"My teammates, Obito, Rin, and the Fourth Hokage," Kakashi pointed at each name as he said them, and then he winked at Sakura. "Don't tell the boys though."

Sakura stifled a small, choked, laugh. Kakashi ruffled her hair, and Sakura buried her face in her hands, holding back a sob.

"It's alright to cry, Sakura."

She leaned on Kakashi's shoulder and cried.

* * *

Later that night, the boys arrived to Kakashi reading and Sakura sleeping in front of a small pile of warm, red embers.

"Why-" Naruto's question was cut off roughly as Sasuke clamped his hand over Naruto's mouth.

"Shut up," he hissed lowly. Naruto turned furiously, about to punch Sasuke, but after Kakashi held a finger up to his lips and pointed to Sakura, he understood.

"You'll be woken up for your watch," Kakashi said quietly. "Get some sleep."


	14. Determination

_**Determination**_

* * *

"Road trip, _YEAHHHHH!_" was the first thing Sakura heard that morning. The second was a loud '_**THUD**.'_

She scrambled out of her bag and saw Sasuke grimacing over an unconscious Naruto.

"I liked him better asleep, and he woke me up for watch by farting in my face," he explained darkly, and Sakura covered a grin.

"As soon as Naruto wakes up, we'll sit down, go over the mission plan and details our client has provided, and then head to the gate to meet him," Kakashi said, as Sasuke covered the traces of the firepit they had dug last night.

Sakura nodded, rolling up her bag. "Alright sensei."

* * *

"This'll be the first time I've ever been out of the village!" Naruto exclaimed, dancing around as the team and Tazuna left the desk at the village gates. It was Sakura's first time out of the village too, though she didn't proclaim it to the world like Naruto.

She also suspected this was one of the first times Sasuke had left the village himself. He was less tense than he normally was, and looked around with a more curious expression than his usual calculating gaze. Even Sakura felt more free than she had in a long time.

Their client, however, looked as unimpressed as ever, and glanced at Kakashi-sensei incredulously at Naruto's remark.

"I'm supposed to trust these brats with my life?"

Kakashi sighed and snapped his book shut. "I'm a jounin, and I'll be along too," he reassured the man. "We shouldn't meet any other ninja anyways, just minor civilian bandits, so you'll be safe."

"Hmph," Tazuna grunted uneasily to himself, and took a long swig out of the sake bottle he was holding. Sakura saw Sasuke glance over at the bridge builder, and then to her. She nodded once, and then signed _watch and wait._ An uneasy reaction from a civilian to a statement was suspicious.

"Encouraging," Tazuna muttered, after wiping his mouth.

"Hey!" Naruto shouted, and marched over to stand in the old man's face. Or rather, glare up at his face. Sakura really wished he wouldn't, but the chances of getting Naruto to stand down were about as good as trying to win a spar with her uncle.

"You don't get to disrespect ninja," Naruto said defiantly. "Especially not one who's going to be the future Hokage, like me!" he crossed his arms in the new dark blue jacket he wore. (Sakura suspected that his old orange one had gotten far too mauled to wear)

Tazuna snorted. "And what are you going to do about it, brat?" he challenged. "You don't have the guts or the strength to be the next Hokage, and even if you were I _still_ wouldn't respect you_._"

Naruto ground his teeth together. "You are DEAD!" he exploded, and lunged towards Tazuna. Sakura gasped, but Kakashi was already there, pulling him back.

"I said _no,_ Naruto," Kakashi shook him by his jacket.

Naruto jerked away from him in a huff, glaring at Tazuna. "You'd better remember my name, old man," Naruto threatened, pointing an accusatory finger at him. "It's Uzumaki Naruto, and I _will _be the Hokage one day, and you'll wish you'd respected me then!" He stomped off and took the point of the group's formation, not waiting to see if they followed him.

Sakura sighed, walking at the right of Tazuna. Sasuke fell in step to his left, and Kakashi brought up the rear.

* * *

Two days away from Konoha, Sakura woke up in the middle of the night with pain in her midsection so bad she could hardly think straight. She rolled over into a hunched kneeling position and gasped, trying not to let whimpers escape her mouth. It was all she could focus on through the dizzying pain and nausea.

"Sakura, what's wrong? Are you hurt?" Sasuke's quiet whisper next to her ear made her jump, which only made the pain worse. She shook her head dumbly, and tried to catch her breath in order to reply.

"Not an enemy, it's normal. Keep watch," she whispered in response, twisting the chain around her wrist tighter.

Sakura saw him lean back stiffly, watching their surroundings once more. Shame built a red hot fire in her cheeks, and she clenched her fists tighter. Why, of all people, did this have to happen in front of Sasuke?!

Well, she thought with a shaky grin, Naruto probably would've made a much bigger deal about it, and that definitely would've been worse.

A few moments later, a flask appeared in her vision. She gratefully accepted it, and when enough of the pain and nausea has passed she took a careful sip. The water was sweetened with honey and ginger and Sakura looked at Sasuke in surprise.

"Thanks," she said softly, and held it back out to him. Sasuke just shook his head.

"Keep it till we refill tomorrow, I've got another one," he whispered back. Sakura sat up, leaning against the tree, and took another grateful sip.

A few minutes later, nearly all the nausea was gone.

"I'll finish your watch, since I'm already up," she told Sasuke, but she could feel his eyes pierce straight through the darkness, studying her.

"Go back to sleep Sakura," he said. "You need to be at your best tomorrow."

"But-"

"Stop distracting me, it's nearly morning anyways," Sasuke gruffly cut off her sentence, shifting to find a better position for the watch. Sakura felt a tiny smile creep onto her face, and after taking another long drink from Sasuke's flask she carefully laid back down onto her sleeping roll and closed her eyes.

* * *

The morning light broke through fog as the team got ready for the day's travel. As they were waiting for Tazuna to finish breakfast, Kakashi-sensei pulled Sakura aside.

"Are you mission capable, Sakura?" he asked her seriously. Sakura turned white and nodded emphatically.

"Ye-yes Kakashi-sensei. Why…?"

"That seal hurt you this morning. I need to make sure it won't compromise the mission."

Sakura drew a shaky breath. "I can fight through it, if I need to," she replied. "I've had to before."

Kakashi-sensei nodded. "I've seen you train in pain before, but I need to check the stability of the seal, to make sure it won't react badly to something."

Sakura nodded, and the jounin pulled up the band covering his Sharnigan eye. It swirled red, and Kakashi-sensei touched the seal through her tunic with a finger glowing in blue chakra. Sakura shivered, feeling the seal expand to its full size and glow green through her clothes.

"It looks as if it's failed before, and been rewritten," he said, his eyes widening in surprise.

"Uncle Shin said that happened when I was pretty young," Sakura admitted.

Kakashi-sensei studied the seal for a while longer, and then straightened up and covered his Sharnigan once more. He ruffled Sakura's hair and wordlessly walked back to camp.

Sakura followed her sensei, frowning. She felt a little uneasy, but took another drink of the honey-ginger water Sasuke had given her to settle her stomach.

* * *

Kakashi was furious.

The seal looked as if it had been written to continuously store a person's chakra as it was created, leaving just enough to keep its host alive. The fact that Sakura could actually use her chakra and small jutsu was a huge testament to her incredibly precise control and conservation, which she probably had to learn in order to _stay_ alive.

Most likely, what made it painful for Sakura was when the seal encountered large amounts of excess chakra that wasn't hers and took it in as well. It was stable, yes, but the excess chakra was pushed through her system, hurting her until it was done. Which basically meant that every time Naruto sneezed, Sakura was in pain.

It was also far more complex than anything he'd ever dealt with, and nothing like any of Konoha's medical or training seals. After the initial failure, multiple safeguards, concealments, and fall-back seals had been written over it.

The newer writing contained only one thing besides the extra safeguards; the ability to account for incredibly fast-growing rates of chakra being produced. This meant the first time it had failed, Sakura was already producing far more than the average amount of chakra, to make up for constantly losing so much.

That seal was a ticking time bomb, rivaled only by the Kyuubi inside Naruto, and Sakura would likely never be able to live without it.

Kakashi was going to have little heart-to-heart with her _uncle_ when they finished this mission.

* * *

Halfway through the day, Sakura was enjoying the bright sunlight when she heard raindrops behind the group. She frowned and turned to look behind her, and what she saw made her reach for a kunai and throw it immediately towards the foreign ninja rising from a puddle behind the group.

"Two ninja, 6 o'clock!" she called out, as the two ninja dodged her kunai and disappeared into the woods on either side of them. "Now on either side, in the forest!"

Sasuke immediately took a defensive position, but Sakura saw Naruto panic.

Two chains appeared like lightning from either side of the road and wrapped around Kakashi-sensei. They pulled, and sliced Sakura's sensei to shreds right in front of them.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto screamed.

Sakura took a shuddering breath, and flexed her left arm against her own chain. Sakura had to believe the jounin would never die that easily, but if Kakashi-sensei _was_ dead, then it was up to them.

The group was left in silence for a few seconds, and then a cold chuckle echoed across the road.

"Well that was easy," two voices commented at once.

Sakura signed quickly to Sasuke, when it was apparent that Naruto wasn't going to be good for much in this fight.

_Focus on the enemy and Naruto, I'll defend the client and get away._

Sasuke nodded, and pulled out a shuriken and kunai. _Go when I'm fighting._

Two ninja appeared on either side of Naruto, and the snake-like chains appeared once more, closing around him. One managed to cut Naruto's hand before Sasuke threw his kunai and shuriken, pinning the chains to trees on either side of the road.

Sakura tugged on Tazuna's pack, pulling him down the road and keeping herself in between him and the enemy.

The two shinobi growled in anger at the same time, and abruptly released their chans. One struck at Sasuke, and the other raced towards Sakura. She tracked his movements, saw him tense to jump behind her towards Tazuna, and launched herself up in the air to meet him.

Kunai clashed against armor, and Sakura managed to dodge the spikes her enemy held, and kick the ninja's midsection before either of them landed. He doubled over, and she rushed in.

Somehow, the enemy seemed slow. Slower than Kakashi, Shin, or even Sasuke. Her target was easy to reach.

The muscle and tendons in the ninja's left leg peeled away from bone, and Sakura turned to disable his dominant arm as the ninja screamed. The man jumped back from her, trailing blood and launching himself away with his last working limbs. Sakura threw a kunai that embedded itself in the ninja's hip, but stayed with Tazuna. Following an enemy wasn't worth leaving their client unprotected.

Suddenly, there were two loud 'cracks,' and the two enemy ninja hung limp in Kakashi-sensei's arms.

Sakura let out a breath of relief, and finally looked over to see Sasuke do the same. Naruto was still shaking, but seemed to be doing a little better than he had before.

"Naruto, hold as still as you can. We'll have to open up your wound again, blood flow should push out any of the poison still in your system." Kakashi turned to Tazuna, and his voice became very, very cold. "Why were they targeting you?" he asked. "Protecting you from simple road bandits and thugs would be within the scope of this mission, but to have Kirigakure shinobi after you would turn this mission into a B or an A rank."

Tazuna looked uncomfortable. "I- we…"

Kakashi-sensei loomed over the old man. "This mission is progressing to a state that, in order to continue on, we'll have to request backup while we wait for Naruto to recover."

Sakura silently went over to Naruto and took out a bandage from her pack while Kakashi-sensei interrogated their client. She gently pulled his jacket off and tied the bandage tightly around the upper part of his arm, cutting off the blood flow. Naruto's haunted expression worried her.

Sasuke didn't appear nearly so concerned, and just smirked at him.

"Are you okay, you big chicken?" he asked mockingly. Naruto blinked, and his expression morphed into angry indignation.

He growled, yanking out a kunai and plunging it into the wound on his hand. Everyone in the group turned to stare at him as blood poured down his arm.

"By this kunai and the blood I've shed," Naruto swore, "I will do my duty as a Konoha shinobi. Uzumaki Naruto, reporting as mission capable, Kakashi-sensei!" he saluted dramatically, determination etched across every line of his face.

Sakura giggled, unwinding the bandage that had been cutting off circulation to his arm and rewinding it around Naruto's hand. She frowned for a moment, when it appeared as if Naruto's hand was already healing itself.

Kakashi-sensei blinked, and then let out a long-suffering sigh. "Just don't bleed to death now, please."

Naruto looked confused, as if he hadn't known that was possible, and a moment later a new expression of terror crossed his face.

"_EHHHHHH?_"

Sakura giggled harder.


	15. Trapped

_**Trapped**_

* * *

The three genin covered any traces of the ambush they could find (something that Naruto seemed to be good at, Sakura noticed). As they incinerated the bodies of the foreign ninja with one of Sasuke's fire jutsu, Tazuna explained his real situation to Kakashi-sensei.

"The bridge I'm building is politically important," Tazuna began, after sighing and sitting on a nearby rock. "Gato, the businessman in charge of shipping products across the Land of Waves, sees the bridge as in his way. He's been trying to delay or stop its construction since we started building it."

"Gato," Kakashi-sensei said slowly, almost incredulously. "One of the richest, most notorious black-market dealers in our world, wants you dead."

Tazuna winced. "The short answer would be yes."

"I don't care!" Naruto pumped his bandaged fist into the air. "I'm gonna kick his butt!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "You mean the jounin from other villages that he's going to hire to kill _us,_" he corrected Naruto, but he didn't argue.

Kakashi looked at Sakura, who just nodded.

"Well Tazuna, it looks as if my team is in full agreement with each other, for once," the jounin sounded resigned. "We will continue to protect you until the bridge is built."

"_YEAH!_" Naruto cried, and then pointed at Sasuke, glaring. "Then I'll finally be able to prove I'm better than you, asshole!"

"Not in a million years," Sasuke smirked.

Sakura laughed and the boys looked away from each other, a bit more pink than usual.

* * *

Later than night, the four ninja and their client sat down to the fire. (Currently Naruto was on watch, but he just used clones so he didn't personally have to do it. Sasuke said it was to make up for how much of a moron Naruto was in the first place.)

Kakashi studied his three genin seriously. Even with only one eye looking at them, he could see that they were a little uneasy.

"Battle recap. Go." Naruto looked just as confused as Tazuna, but Sasuke and Sakura seemed to fall into deep thought.

Kakashi was interested to see what they came up with. To gauge the next step after any event, there were standard areas of consideration that the academy had gone over. These were the potential and existing failures, accomplishments, and then overall effectiveness. Of course, this was a drill academy students practiced for months, but only after a quiet whisper from Sakura did Naruto actually figure out what was going on.

"Well," Sakura finally began, after glancing at Sasuke. "We didn't notice the enemies in the first place, until they were coming out of their hiding place."

Sasuke grunted. "If they had attacked us while hiding at first, before we knew they were there, it would've been bad," he added.

"They'll never get a chance!" Naruto declared enthusiastically. "Nothings going to get past me after this, _nothing!_"

"What else?" Kakashi prompted, as Sasuke rolled his eyes and Sakura gave Naruto a soft, encouraging smile.

"It was harder to fight long-range," Sakura replied. "Especially while protecting someone, and not knowing if the attackers had partners still hiding in the forest."

"I- I," Naruto looked uncomfortable. "I froze up," he admitted, steadfastly looking in any direction but his teammates. Kakashi watched as his face turned bright red. Sakura just looked thoughtful.

"Maybe, the next time, kind of treat them like you would the ANBU at Konoha who are always chasing you around?" she said. Naruto visibly brightened.

"Hey, I could do that!" he said proudly. "They'll never know what hit them."

Sasuke snorted. "Just like last time, I bet."

Kakashi quickly cut in before Naruto started yet another fight with his teammate.

"What did you do well?" he asked. Naruto turned red in embarrassment again and looked away uncomfortably.

"The kunai and shuriken worked well, and they weren't expecting us to attack them, just defend," Sasuke noted. "It seemed like they expected us to be easy to take down." he smirked.

"I gotta take a leak," Naruto muttered, and quickly left the group sitting around the fire. He walked off into the forest, and then Kakashi glanced at Sakura. He saw her lean forward slightly, hunched over the seal. It looked as if emotional flares of Naruto's chakra did affect it, and Kakashi gritted his teeth together.

"What about you, Sakura?" he continued anyways.

"My opponent seemed slow," she looked confused. "He was… not hard to defend against." she frowned, and then looked at her hands.

Kakashi chuckled. "Those two were ranked as chunin in the village of Kirigakure," he said. "I'm glad you found their attacks easy to counter," he ruffled Sakura's pink hair. "That makes me feel better about staying with this mission.

The jounin stood up and then meandered his way into the forest surrounding the camp.K

Kakashi made his way towards Naruto, who was sitting on a log near the river they had camped by.

* * *

Naruto picked up a rock by his side and threw it into the river frustratedly. _Why_ couldn't he fight?! Even _Sasuke _didn't freeze up, and Naruto had already _been _in a real fight before, damn it.

"Heyo," a familiar voice said from behind him. Naruto ignored Kakashi-sensei and threw another rock across the river.

"So what are you going to do better next time?" his sensei said, sitting down by him.

"_Not _freeze up," he growled. Kakashi-sensei chuckled, and Naruto felt a hand on his head.

"Killing intent is hard to get used to, but I don't think it'll happen again, Naruto." After that, his sensei went quiet.

The two of them sat there, looking at the river, and after a while Naruto began to feel a little better.

* * *

"So what was that about?" Tazuna asked, after Kakashi had disappeared into the forest. Sakura glanced at their client as she and Sasuke cleaned up the meal.

"It was a battle debrief, where we sit down as a team and talk about strategy, what went well and what didn't, and what to change to do better the next time," Sakura replied quietly.

"Hm," Tazuna lifted his sake bottle to his lips and went silent.

After she and Sasuke were done, Sakura looked at her hands again. Had she really defended Tazuna so easily against a _chunin_? She knew from sparring against Sasuke that she wasn't really bad for a genin, but she'd always thought…

Well... Uncle Shin had always said that she was going to die or get seriously injured in her first real battle. He said that she wouldn't be able to be a shinobi, and that she would dishonor Konoha.

But she _hadn't._

Sakura felt the tiny scroll dig into her hip and pulled it out, staring at it. She couldn't use the swords, but the armor…

This mission was more dangerous than she had thought. It wasn't a C-rank anymore and people, _shinobi, _from other villages were trying to kill Tazuna. Konoha's client. Unconsciously, Sakura clenched the scroll tighter as her fight earlier that day replayed in her mind. Kakashi-sensei had seemed… proud of her.

And then Sakura realized something.

If her name ended up on that memorial back in Konoha, it will be because she had fought. Just like her parents, the Fourth Hokage, and everyone on Kakashi-sensei's old team. Kakashi-sensei might even visit her sometimes.

She opened the sealed scroll as quietly as she could. Tazuna was already asleep and snoring so he didn't notice, but Sasuke, who was sitting next to her, glanced over curiously. Sakura picked out the back, chest, and then the left arm armor plates from the pile and set them aside. She sealed the rest into the scroll, since she wasn't used to wearing armor any more than that would inhibit movement in another confrontation.

She looked up, and met Sasuke's eyes. "They were my mothers'," she said, in response to his silent question. "Since this mission is more dangerous than we thought..." Sakura trailed off.

Sasuke nodded and turned back to his own sleeping roll.

Sakura traced the small pink flower and the Haruno symbol with her finger before she laid down to sleep.

* * *

They were about a day's journey from Tazuna's house when Sakura began to feel uneasy. A bush near the road rustled, and though she couldn't see anything in the forest or by the river, she fingered her weapons pouch.

Naruto, however, wasn't so subtle.

"GOTCHA!" he yelled, throwing a shuriken towards the offending bush. Kakashi sighed, and pulled the bush back to reveal a terrified white rabbit, pinned to a tree by its scruff.

"Naruto, try to gauge whether or not you target is dangerous before you throw sharp pointy things at it," he said dryly.

Naruto turned beet red in embarrassment, but Sakura frowned. Rabbits weren't normally white this time of year. Maybe a distraction..? She turned to search the forest on the other side of the road and caught a glint of reflected light. Immediately she stepped in front of the civilian, armored left arm raised and a weapon in her right hand.

"Down!" Kakashi-sensei yelled.

Sakura yanked Tazuna down to the road. Not even a second later, a huge sword spun in the air right above them and buried itself into the bark of the same tree the rabbit was stuck to. The whole tree shook.

"Well," an ominous voice chuckled. "You noticed. Perhaps this won't be as easy as I had thought."

Sakura looked up to see a foreign shinobi, shirtless and wearing the headband of Kirigakure, saunter forwards from the forest shadows. He had dark hair, sharp eyes and a cloth wrapped around his mouth and neck, covering it like Kakashi-sensei's own mask.

Sakura saw Kakashi-sensei carefully move to keep himself in between them and their attacker.

"Momochi Zabuza," he stated.

"That, and the Demon of the Hidden Mist," Zabuza added with a shrug, as if his name didn't matter. His eyes bored into Sakura and the boys, and his voice turned cruel and mocking. "What adorable genin you have, Hatake Kakashi."

"Well," Kakashi said companionably. "I'm rather proud of them so far."

Naruto and Sasuke looked shocked at how easy-going their sensei sounded, but Sakura recognized Momochi Zabuza's tactic, to try and shake them up. She kept an eye on the forest, looking for other shinobi coming to attack them.

"Hm." Zabuza looked towards Kakashi-sensei. "I don't suppose it'd be too much trouble for you to give up the old man?" he asked, now in the same easy tone.

"Ah, well, you see, we can't do that," Kakashi-sensei replied, his eye crinkling upwards in a smile. "It's our mission, I hope you understand."

"Of course," Zabuza nodded amiably. "I hope you don't mind too much, but I'll have to go through you all." He didn't sound very disappointed.

Zabuza ripped the huge sword out of the tree, which fell with a crash. A wave of killing intent rushed over the group, and out of the corner of her eye Sakura saw Tazuna, Naruto, and even Sasuke freeze in terror.

The waves of killing intent pointed at the group were about as bad as those that Uncle Shin had, so Sakura just tightened the chain around her wrist and positioned herself in front of Tazuna. Somehow though, it didn't seem as terrible. Maybe because this opponent wasn't her uncle, or maybe it was because of Kakashi-sensei.

"It's alright," Her sensei turned slightly to smile at the small group. Sasuke and Naruto began to breathe again.

The Konoha jonin pulled up his headband, uncovering a red Sharnigan eye. Next to her, Sakura heard Sasuke draw in a sharp breath of surprise.

The two shinobi clashed.

Sakura tracked Kakashi-sensei and Zabuza movements as they fought, each signing complex water jutsu. Her sensei seemed to copy every jutsu and movement Zabuza made, and suddenly, the Copy-Cat Kakashi nickname made sense.

Zabuza got more and more tense as they fought, losing confidence against her sensei. After a few seconds of fighting he disappeared, and a dark mist spread over the road and the river, completely obscuring all vision. Sakura took a moment to repel her own chakra in case it was a genjutsu, but when that didn't work she closed her eyes and relied on her hearing. A big sword was a lot easier to hear than the kunai and senbon her uncle used.

Soft clacks and and small winds betrayed Zabuza's position. His target was most likely Tazuna.

Sakura filled her left arm and the joints of her body with chakra. As the silence in the mist stretched, she fell into a defensive stance, palming a kunai and bracing herself for impact.

There was a rush of air and Sakura turned, raising her left arm and turning her feet to meet the giant hissing blade.

Zabuza's sword hit her armor with a clang that made her arm numb and nearly deafened her. With her right hand, Sakura threw the kunai. Zabuza swore lowly.

She jumped backwards as the sword shifted, grabbing Tazuna's waist with her good arm and pulling him away from danger.

Zabuza chuckled. "You can't escape me forever," his voice echoed around the clearing.

Sakura's eyes were still closed, but a small grin found its way on her face. "Try me," she said quietly. It was something Naruto or Sasuke would've said.

He laughed, high and cold. It sent chills down her back, but she shook them off and focused on sending chakra running down her numb arm.

"And here I was, thinking you had a _genin _team, Hatake," the Kirigakure ninja commented.

"Really?" Kakashi-sensei asked mildly. "Strange. Must've slipped my mind."

Metal clanged against metal again in the distance, and little by little the mist dissipated. Sakura opened her eyes to see the two jounin fighting on the river.

Suddenly, Kakashi-sensei was trapped in a sphere of water, and Zabuza was smiling in victory. Sakura heard Naruto and Sasuke gasp, and a water clone of the Demon Hidden in the Mist rose from the river. _Go! _Sakura's sensei signed, almost frantically. _Escape and finish the mission!_

"Now," Zabuza said, turning towards the rest of her team. "What will you three do?"

* * *

**A/N: **To InARealPickle, the beginning of the chapter **Branded **will tell you the answer.

To everyone else, thank you for reading, as always, and please review!


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